“Yes, there’s always a husband in the background. Sometimes he lives abroad, sometimes he’s in a lunatic asylum, but he’s mostly out of the way.”
Bobbie staggered and caught hold of a chair for support. Happily, Diana did not notice his wan excitement.
“And then what happens?” she asked, a little nervous as to whether Mr. Superbus was still confounding “miss” with “ma’am.”
“Well, she lures him away,” said Mr. Superbus. “There’s no other word for it. She lures him away. And whilst they’re away, up comes Double Dan with all the dear departed’s little tricks—his voice, his funny little ways, which the girl has been studying and passing on to Dan. You understand, miss? I’ve collected all this information myself. It’s a coop with me. ‘Coop’ is French for ‘cop.’”
“And the girl?” asked Diana.
“Oh, she gets away too—pretends her husband’s come back unexpectedly from foreign parts; but she does it so that the fellow can’t return home. Usually he’s told people that he’s going away for a fortnight or so, and naturally, he doesn’t want to come back.”
“How perfectly disgusting!” said Diana with a wry face.
“That’s what I say,” said Mr. Superbus earnestly. “Having allowed a gentleman to go so far——”
“At any rate, we need not have any fear about Mr. Selsbury,” said Diana with a quiet smile.
Evidently Mr. Superbus had fears about Mr. Selsbury. He looked around in his mysterious way, and then: