Believe me I got a thrill! There was a second when I had to bite on my under lip to keep an exclamation from bursting out. This was something, something that no one had had a suspicion of, something that might lead—I couldn't follow it then—that time, what I had to do was to find out everything he knew.
"Are you sure?" I breathed out incredulous.
"Perfectly. He was daffy about her."
"You just guessed it?"
He suddenly wheeled in his chair and looked at me, with that same piercing, almost fierce look I'd seen before. The wine he'd been drinking showed red in his face, and in his manner there was a roughness that was new.
"Of course I guessed it. A man like Harland doesn't go round telling you he's in love. But I'm a pretty sharp chap. Many things don't escape me. He didn't have to tell me. I was on the spot and I saw."
Why didn't Iola see? She was on the spot too and when it came to romance no man that breathes has anything on Iola. I ventured as carefully as if I was walking on the subway tracks, and didn't know which was the third rail.
"He tried to keep it a secret?"
"Oh, he tried and I guess he did except from little Tony."
"What did she feel—Miss Whitehall—about him?"