His voice was quite as cold and distant as her own. She went up to his chair and laid her hand upon its arm.
"Your manner is very abrupt and strange," she said, in greatly softened tones. "Has anything occurred?"
He turned and met her look. He nodded significantly once or twice before answering. "Yes, something has occurred, most decidedly. Can't you guess what it is? If so, you will save me the distress of explaining."
For several moments she was silent. "I suppose you mean that you have seen Kate Diggs," she then hazarded.
He nodded again. "I have," he replied.
"Ah!" said Mrs. Lee, with an airy satire. "Then she must have made a very strong case against me, as the lawyers phrase it."
"Undoubtedly she has," he answered, rising. "I have heard the prosecution; do you want me to hear the defense?"
"Of course I demand that you shall do so," she exclaimed, "although I don't at all like the word you describe it by! I have no need whatever of defending myself."
Goldwin gave one of his rich, mellow laughs. The twinkle had come back to his eye; all his wonted geniality seemed to reclothe him. And yet his companion rather felt than saw that it was worn as an ironical disguise.
"Upon my word, I think you have been very hardly treated," he declared. The sting of the real sarcasm pierced her, then, and she sensibly recoiled. "You ought to have been allowed the privilege of witnessing your little scandalous comedy, after you had planned it so cleverly. How you must have suffered when it all went off in so tame and quiet a way!"