Mrs. Wenham Gardner looked, for a moment, as though she would have struck him.
“You need not lie to me!” she exclaimed. “It is not worth while. Tell me where you met her, why you were with her at all in that intimate fashion, and where she is now!”
Tavernake realized at once that so far as this woman was concerned, the fable of his relationship with Beatrice was hopeless. She knew!
“Madam,” he replied, “I made the acquaintance of the young lady with whom I was that evening, at the boarding-house where we both lived.”
“What were you doing in the chemist's shop?” she demanded.
“The young lady had been ill,” he proceeded deliberately, wondering how much to tell. “She had been taken very ill indeed. She was just recovering when you entered.”
“Where is she now?” the woman asked eagerly. “Is she still at that boarding-house of which you spoke?”
“No,” he answered.
Her fingers gripped his arm once more.
“Why do you answer me always in monosyllables? Don't you understand that you must tell me everything that you know about her. You must tell me where I can find her, at once.”