He feels it would be madness to deny it.
"Very well," says Minnie, "I was there too, and I went down the steps—to the garden. Your wife went down before me."
Rylton grows suddenly interested. He had seen Minnie go down those steps—but the other!
"Then?" asks he; his tone is breathless.
"Oh, yes—just then," says Minnie, "and that is what I wanted to talk to you about. You and Mrs. Bethune were on the balcony above, and Tita passed just beneath, and I saw Mrs. Bethune lean over for a second as it were—it seemed to me a most evil second, and she saw Tita—and her eyes!" Minnie pauses. "Her eyes were awful! I felt frightened for Tita."
"You mean to tell me that Mrs. Bethune saw Tita that night passing beneath the balcony?"
The memory of his bet with Marian, that strange bet, so strangely begun, comes back to him—and other things too! He loses himself a little. Once again he is back on that balcony; the lights are low, the stars are over his head. Marian is whispering to him, and all at once she grows silent. He remembers it; she takes a step forward. He remembers that too—a step as though she would have checked something, and then thought better of it.
Is this girl speaking the truth? Had Marian seen and then made her bet, and then deliberately drawn him step by step to that accursed arbour? And all so quietly—so secretly—without a thought of pity, of remorse!
No, it is not true! This girl is false—— And yet—that quick step Marian had taken; it had somehow, in some queer way, planted itself upon his memory.
Had she seen Tita go by with Hescott? She had called it a fair bet! Was it fair? Was there any truth anywhere? If she had seen them—if she had deliberately led him to spy upon them——