“Of course not. I was an idiot to imagine that you would care enough to come, even if you had known.”
“I do not know,” he remarked, “why you should say that. On the contrary——”
She interrupted him.
“Oh! I know what you are going to say. I ran away from Mrs. Selby’s nice rooms, and never thanked you for your kindness. I didn’t even leave a message for you, did I? Well, never mind; you know why, I daresay.”
Wolfenden thought that he did, but he evaded a direct answer.
“What I cannot understand,” he said, “is why you are here.”
“It is my new situation,” she answered. “I was bound to look for one, you know. There is nothing strange about it. I advertised for a situation, and I got this one.”
He was silent. There were things in connection with this which he scarcely understood. She watched him with a mocking smile parting her lips.
“It is a good deal harder to understand,” she said, “why you are here. This is the very last house in the world in which I should have thought of seeing you.”
“Why?” he asked quickly.