"Which of them is such a secret?"
She was smiling now, but with obvious effort. Why this pressure on a pointless point? And where had I seen her before?
"Well, there was our very first adventure, for one," said I.
"Underground, you mean?"
"Yes—partly."
I could not help staring now. Mrs. Ricardo had reddened so inexplicably.
"There was no need to tell me the other part!" she said, scornfully. "I was in it—as you know very well!"
Then I did know. She was the bedizened beauty who had raked in the five-pound notes, and smashed a magnum of champagne in her excitement, at the orgy in Sir Christopher Stainsby's billiard room.
"I know it now," I stammered, "but I give you my word——"
"Fiddle!" she interrupted. "You've known it all the time. I've seen it in your face. He gave me away to you, and I shan't forgive him!"