Her oddly-coloured eyes flashed like a searchlight over me; but though my heart came into my throat in a suffocating way, I had my mask on and I think she could read nothing.
“Do you think it quite fair to discuss other people’s private and rather sacred affairs, Mrs Valetta?”
“Oh, fair? Perhaps not, but it will always be done while there are men and women in the world, and if you think that anything can be kept private and sacred in this country, my dear girl, you are greatly deluded. Every one knows and has discussed the matter of Anna Cleeve’s infatuation for Anthony Kinsella. Some people will even supply you with the conversation that occurred when she taxed him with being already married.”
I felt the blood leaving my face. I dared not speak for fear of betraying to this cruel woman how much I was suffering.
“Of course friendships between men and women are everyday affairs in this country. We are nearly all married and bored and trying to find some interest in life. But the married women don’t care about the girls annexing their privileges. And then there are some men with whom friendship is forbidden; Anthony Kinsella is one of them. However, Anna Cleeve’s friendship with him came to a wise end, and she is now engaged to her rich man. But I haven’t the slightest doubt as to where her heart is.”
“How can you say such things?” I said, quivering with indignation. “What has it to do with you or me? You are probably doing Miss Cleeve a great injustice.”
She answered in her usual dry and weary manner:
“I may or I may not be. But I think it would be easier to fall in love with Tony Kinsella than out of it, don’t you?”
I advanced no opinion. I had learned to expect her thrusts and to receive them without testifying. Nevertheless they added to my pain which was already more than I could bear.