She controlled her voice with difficulty.
"Heavens knows!" She laughed, with a pitiful little air of throwing him off the scent. "One gets frightened for no reason sometimes."
"Does one?"
"In the country—I'm town-bred." She smiled at him.
He made up his mind, though he felt brutal.
There was a silence. Slowly she lifted shaking hands, warding him off.
"No, no!" she said. "For pity's sake. You are calling her back." Then, struck with a new idea, she grew, if possible, whiter still. "Unless," she said, whispering, "you saw her—you too? Then there is no hope. I thought it was in my mind—only in my mind—but if you saw her too——" Her voice failed.
He thrust in hastily, ready enough to comfort her, but knowing well that the time had not come. Yet he felt like a surgeon at his first operation.
"No, you are mistaken. There was no one. I don't even know who Louise is. Only you mentioned her—once or twice, you see."