"Oh," he said, looking at me very pointed, "then you know what's happened to Bébita."
I hadn't any answer ready for that. I had to get hold of something quick and as you will do when you're taken off your guard, I got hold of a lie:
"I met Mrs. Janney on the stairs and she told me."
"That's funny," he says, sort of thoughtful. "Before she went she told both Mr. Janney and myself that no one in the house must hear a word of it."
I began to get red, and for a moment, stared at my feet pressed side by side on the wood in front of me. It didn't make it any pleasanter to know that Ferguson was looking at me, intent and narrow, out of the tail of his eye.
"I guess she was so excited she forgot and just blabbed it out."
It was the best I could do, but it was poor stuff. If you knew Mrs. Janney you'd see why.
"Um," said Ferguson, and took a look ahead at the cloud of dust that hid the other car. Then he comes out with another:
"I wonder if that was the reason she called you Mrs. Babbitts?"
I took a good breath from the bottom of my lungs and said: