“What nonsense!” he exclaimed. “I beg your pardon, I ought not to have said that. Neither,” he continued, after a moment’s pause, “ought you to have said what you did.”
I had stopped short at his first exclamation. I hesitated and then walked slowly on again. After all it was my fault.
“Perhaps I ought not,” I answered. “At the same time I am not at all sure that she might not have given up this quest of hers if only you had not been here.”
“I don’t agree with you at all,” he answered, firmly. “She would have given it up, I believe, if she had not seen that photograph in Adelaide’s cabinet. It is that which makes her to decide to remain here.”
“Has she any fresh suspicions?”
“I don’t think so,” he answered. “She believes that you and Adelaide Fortress are in league together. She believes that you both know where Philip Maltabar is. She also——” he continued, very slowly.
“Well?” I interrupted.
“She also seems to have an idea that you are keeping your father away from her so that she may not have an opportunity of asking him about Philip Maltabar. She has written to him, as you know, and the answer came back in a lady’s handwriting. She does not believe that your father had that letter. She believes that you intercepted and answered it.”
“She is stopping really, then, to see him?” I said.
“Chiefly, I am afraid.”