“Why not?”
“Oh, why indeed! But the fact opened my eyes to how much—how little Mr. Mar’s welfare has to do with her crazy scheme.”
“It hasn’t opened your eyes very wide, Louis.” Mrs. Mar shook her head with the air of one looking back over a long road painfully traversed. “Nobody shrinks more from a fuss and a falling-out than Hildegarde. This winter, without Bella, and without you, and without—It hasn’t been easy for Hildegarde. She would have given in about Nome long ago, but for—” Mrs. Mar suddenly leaned forward again, and speaking hurriedly, “Somehow or other Hildegarde knows. I believe she’s known all along.”
“Knows what?”
“What her father meant to do.”
“About not coming home?”
“Yes.”
“She knows that because I told her.”
“You knew it!”
“Yes.”