“No, he quarrelled with me. We were getting on, as I considered, very nicely, and suddenly I could say nothing that would please him. Afterwards I understood it was because he had grown tired of me, and found me unprofitable, so far as secrets were concerned.”
“And so you were consigned to shadows, and a suite of rooms in an upper storey?”
“Yes, and it was terrible. I never wish to go through such a time again. It seemed to me eternity. Even now I don’t believe it was a week. It was a year of weeks.”
“Did Mr. Barringcourt ever ask you any questions about the Serpent?”
“Yes; he often asked me questions.”
“And you never told him what you had seen then?”
“No, I couldn’t, much as I wanted to. When I got to that part I only stammered, and that used to make him angry.”
“Then how can you say he discovered you had no secret worth discovering when you distinctly had one?”
“He would have simply ridiculed it, and said there was no truth in it. So what was it worth to him?”
“You used some little reason, then, in the controlling of your tongue?”