"Not from any line you have ever written," she retorted. "Alicia Ford told me, otherwise I shouldn't have known."
"Still, you came. Why? Were you curious?"
"Why should I be curious, and what about?—the Red Desert? I've seen deserts before."
"I thought you might be curious to know what disposition the Red Desert was making of such a failure as I am," he said evenly. "I can forgive that more easily than I can forgive your bringing of the other man along to be an on-looker."
"Herbert, you mean? He is a good boy, a nice boy—and perfectly harmless. You'll like him immensely when you come to know him better."
"You like him?" he queried.
"How can you ask—when you have just called him 'the other man'?"
Lidgerwood turned in his chair and faced her squarely.
"Eleanor, I had my punishment over a year ago, and I have been hoping you would let it suffice. It was hard enough to lose you without being compelled to stand by and see another man win you. Can't you understand that?"
She did not answer him. Instead, she whipped aside from that phase of the subject to ask a question of her own.