“If you’ll tell me the nature of his theft and under what provocation and circumstances it was committed maybe I’ll be able to get a better idea of the kind of person he was. What did he steal?”
“But, Roger, this is a hypothetical case.”
“I know it is, but that doesn’t make any difference in the answer. What was the nature of the theft—money, jewels, grafting on a large scale, or taking an apple from the grocer’s barrel?”
I looked around the room in desperation, saw the blank left on the wall by the Marie Antoinette mirror, and said doggedly:
“He stole a mirror.”
“Let me try and get at the bottom of it”
“A mirror,” said Roger with the air of having extracted an important bit of evidence. “Umph— Why did he take it?”
“Roger, what’s the sense of going into all these details?”
“Evie,” with maddening obstinacy, all the more maddening because it was so mild, “if I’m to give an answer I must know. Did he intend to sell it?”