"What put it into your head, Sara, that Vivian was saying anything unpleasant about you last night?"
"Magic," she replied succinctly.
"Rubbish!"
"I have a magic tapestry that transports me, hither and thither, and by night I always carry Aladdin's lamp. So, you see, I see and hear everything."
"Be sensible."
"Very well. I will be sensible. If you intend to be influenced by what Vivian or her mother said to you last night, I think you'd be wise to avoid me from this time on."
Prepared though he was, he blinked his eyes and said something she didn't quite catch.
She went on: "Moreover, in addition to my attainments in the black art, I am quite as clever as Mr. Sherlock Holmes in some respects. I really do some splendid deducing. In the first place, you were asked there and I was not. Why? Because I was to be discussed. You see—"
"Marvellous!" he interrupted loudly.
"You were to be told that I have cruel designs upon you."