She minded very much indeed, but she had to say No.
"We've always been pretty frank with each other," Peter said, "or I wouldn't ask. But aren't you a bit more interested in that fellow Strange than you pretend to be?"
Margaret reflected gloomily on the manifold failings of the male sex, and decided that the worst of these was the appallingly blunt questions men asked. "I don't think so," she replied. "I must say I do rather like him. I'm sorry you've got such a down on him. Does he wear the wrong kind of tie?"
Peter refused to be put off by such flippancy. "I don't want to be officious," he explained painstakingly, "and I don't say for a moment that you aren't quite capable of looking after yourself, but I have got a distinct impression that Strange has got on your soft side. Am I right?"
"Very seldom," Margaret retorted. "But I've already said I like the man. Perhaps that's partly your fault, because you and Chas run him down so much."
"Rot!" Peter said sweepingly. "All Charles and I have said is that Strange behaves in a way that can't be described as anything but fishy. You must admit that he does."
Margaret was silent. Peter struck a match and said between puffs: "I've a suspicion you've seen rather more of the fellow than I have. Has he ever told you anything ahout himself?"
She could answer that quite truthfully. "No."
"Well, has he ever said anything to make you think that we're on the wrong track about him?"
She thought for a moment, wondering how much she could divulge without breaking her word to Strange. Peter had always been her confidant, more so than Celia, who was older, and who no longer lived with them, and never till now had she kept anything from him. It was uncomfortable to be so torn between two feelings, uncomfortable and unaccustomed. Yet something deeper than her friendship with her brother now had her in its hold, and even while one part of her longed to tell him everything, the other prompted her to keep silence. She looked up to find that Peter was regarding her steadily. She coloured, and said: "It's very hard to say. But from - things he has said to me I do feel perfectly sure that whatever he may be doing he doesn't want to hurt or alarm us in any way."