She looked at him. His expression was graver than became the incident; he was trying to smile, but Beatrice saw that his eyes and lips were agitated.
'Why mayn't I?' she repeated.
'Oh, if you insist,' he exclaimed, moving back a step or two, 'of course you may.'
She took up the case, and looked at it on either side.
'There are letters in it?' she said, without raising her eyes.
'Yes, I believe there are letters in it.'
'Important, I suppose?'
'I daresay; I suppose I had some reason for putting them there.'
He spoke with apparent indifference, and turned to light a cigarette. Beatrice put back the case, and closed the drawer.
'Here is note-paper,' Wilfrid said, holding some to her.