"I might have known!" he spluttered through the smoke. "I might have known it even from the first!"
"It's jolly bad luck that you should know it at all," said Lady Vera, in the same dry little voice. "I'm not proud of it, I can tell you."
"Not of stopping an absolutely wanton crime?"
"Not of turning against my old lot—and I haven't, either!" cried Lady Vera, with more passion than he had ever heard from her. "I feel everything I said up-stairs. I think we've all been treated more abominably than ever. I don't blame them a bit for all this sort of thing——"
"Vera, you do—you know you do!"
"I don't; how can I? Haven't I done worse? I may think they're going rather far, and I may put in my spoke——"
"This is not the first time!" he exulted, still only with her hands in his, yet little knowing how he hurt them.
"That's my business," she said, with a sudden laugh that broke her voice. "It's the least I can do—after two years ago."
"And I knew you'd done it!" he was quick to cry. "I knew it hours back, though you did frighten me again just now. I found the hose-pipe in the bathroom with your gloves, and their rotten message rubbed out on the wall! I knew the hose was yours, because I'd just been told there wasn't such a thing in the house. But I was looking for something of the kind. I knew there was something to be found, that the whole thing wasn't what it seemed. And ever since it's been the happiest night of my life, on top of my most miserable hour!"
"I'll motor you back to town for that," said Lady Vera, with another poor little laugh. "I—I'm sorry I didn't tell you this afternoon."