"You did not mean me to go away with the crowd, did you?" asked Brett, as the door closed behind Mr. Brown.
"Not if you wished to stay," answered Marion, taking her favourite chair near the fire. "Take another cigarette. Sit down."
"And make myself at home? Thanks."
"If you can," said Mrs. Darche with a pleasant laugh.
"Did you hear what they were saying to each other over there while we were talking?" inquired Brett, who by this time seemed to have recovered from the unnatural embarrassment he had shown at first. He had rather suddenly made up his mind that Marion ought to know something about the story in the papers.
"No. Did you?" she asked.
"Yes."
"I do not like that." Mrs. Darche did not seem pleased. "It was not nice of you—to be able to talk as you were talking, and to listen to the conversation of other people at the same time."
"Do you know what they were saying?" asked Brett.
"No, certainly not."