‘There is a secret here, then?’
‘No.’
‘You are contradictory, Miss Leland?’
‘You are obtuse, Mr. Barndale. If there be a secret it is as open as——’
‘As what?’
‘As your door was yesterday when you spoke to your servant.’
‘Then you——?’
‘Yes,’ responds Miss Lilian, severely. I know you gentlemen. You were going home until you met that idle and dissolute James, by accident. Then you suddenly change your mind, and go out to Constantinople.’ There for a moment she pauses and follows up her victory over the now crimson Barndale with a terrible whisper. ‘On the spree! Oh, you need scarcely look surprised. I have learned your vulgar terms from James.’
‘I hope I am not so criminal as you fancy,’ says Barndale, finding the proof of his guilt fall less heavily than he had feared.
‘If you were thrice as criminal, this is not the tribunal,’ and she waves her parasol round her feet, ‘at which the felon should be tried.’