“Let her! But she’s got her head. I can’t prevent her. She’ll never come to any harm though. She isn’t the kind to want to do anything she thought was wrong. No indeed. She would never think anything wrong that she wanted to do. But tell me. I could not very well ask before the servants. What are you going to do?”
For a moment Leilah did not answer. Then, a bit resignedly, she folded her hands.
“I do not see that I have the ability to do anything.”
The pause, the gesture, the reply, angered Violet. She bristled.
“Don’t be so modest, you make me nervous!”
For a moment she also paused. Then, ruminantly, as though in self communion, the lady uttered these cryptic words:
“But perhaps——”
Leilah, who had turned away, turned to her. “Perhaps what?”
But Violet, compressing her lips, assumed the appearance which a very worldly, exquisitely gowned and beautiful Sphinx might present.
“Perhaps what?” Leilah, puzzled by the attitude, repeated.