“No!”
“Didn’t you see Captain Stern this morning at the club?”
“Yes. He didn’t say.”
“Bother!” said Diana frankly. “I must telephone through the first thing.”
“Where?”
“To the Lewins, of course. They will know.”
“Why?”
The monosyllables did not warn her, for his voice was perfectly under control. And his back was towards her as he helped himself to another cigar from the box on the sideboard.
“I’m going down to see old Ally Sloper off if he goes in the middle of the night!” said Diana shortly. The openness of the speech sounded brazen to him to-night, for he forgot that yesterday it would have passed him by. In her certainty of being secure from his suspicion she took no trouble to disguise her motives, and she was in some sort desperate also. The feeling that had been half-hearted on Ally’s side had grown to painful intensity on Diana’s until her fondness for him made her as weak as he.
“He will probably start early, and only his wife will be there. I shouldn’t make myself an unwelcome third if I were you.”