“Very well!” she said. “You do not know exactly where she has gone. Bien, alors! You guess, eh?[Pg 314]”
“No,” answered Lexy, bewildered. “I don’t. I can’t.”
“She has spoken to you of some—friend?”
Seeing Lexy still frankly bewildered, Mrs. Enderby lost her patience.
“The man!” she said. “Who is the man?”
“I never heard Caroline speak of any man,” said Lexy.
She spoke firmly enough, and she was telling the truth; but she remembered that telephone call, and the memory brought a faint flush into her cheeks. Mrs. Enderby did not fail to notice it.
“Listen!” she said. “There is one thing you can do—only one thing. You can hold your tongue. Tell no one. Let no one know that Caroline is not here. You understand?”
“But aren’t you going to—”
“I am going to do nothing. You understand—nothing. There is to be no scandal in my house.”