His eyes dropped to the papers under his hand. He said quite gently: "He might perhaps be jealous of your good name, Mrs. North."
"I don't know."
"That is not consistent with the rest of your evidence," he pointed out. "You ask me to believe in a state of confidence existing between you and your husband that was unaccompanied by any great depth of affection, yet at the same time you wish me to believe that it is impossible for you to make a clean breast of the whole story to him."
She swallowed and said: "I do not wish to be dragged through the Divorce Courts, Superintendent."
He raised his eyes. "There is, then, so little confidence between you that you were afraid your husband might do that?"
"Yes," she said, doggedly returning his look.
"You had no fear that he might, instead, be - very angry - with the man who had put you in this unpleasant position?"
"None," she said flatly.
He allowed a pause to follow. When he spoke again, it was with an abruptness that startled her. "A few minutes ago you repeated words to me which you heard Mr. Fletcher utter when he passed down the garden-path with his visitor. How was it that you were able to hear these so clearly, and yet distinguish nothing that his companion said?"
"I have told you that Mr. Fletcher had a light, rather high-pitched voice. If you have ever been with a deaf person you must know that such a voice has a far greater carrying power than a low one."