“It takes a woman to perceive something which doesn’t exist,” he said easily.
She turned and examined him with level brows. “Then why did you admit it?”
“I didn’t.”
She leaned back among her pillows and laughed at him mockingly. “Oh, Phil! Must I be brutal?”
“What do you mean?”
“That the girl—is here—to-night.”
“That is not true,” he stammered. “She is not here.”
Mrs. Pennington did not spare him.
“A moment ago—you denied that there was a girl. Now you’re willing to admit that she’s only absent. Please don’t doubt the accuracy of my feminine deductions, Phil. Nothing provokes me more. You may drive me to the extreme of mentioning her name.”