"Why, of course I am. I was swearing at my own stupidity. Of course I am very glad if she has not refused him." He smiled a very unhealthy-looking smile. "See here—" he began again.
"Well? I am seeing, as you call it."
"This. They must have had a talk yesterday. He was here with me, and suddenly he got up and said he was going to read with her. And you say that she asked him to read with her when he went to where you were."
"Called out to him half across the deck—in the middle of my story, too, and a firstrate one at that."
"She does not care much for stories," said Barker; "but that is not the question. It was evidently a put-up job."
"Meaning a preconcerted arrangement," said the Duke. "Yes. It was arranged between them some time yesterday. But I never left her alone until she said she was going to lie down."
"And I never left him until you told me she had gone to bed."
"She did not lie down, then," said the Duke.
"Then she lied up and down," said Barker, savagely playful.
"Ladies do not lie," said the Duke, who did not like the word, and refused to laugh.