“I said them because I felt them, and I hate flummery and thick-headedness. I was as respectful as I could be; but there were things about the trial I didn’t like—irregular things, which the Admiral himself, who knows his business, set right.”
“I remember the Admiral said there were points about the case that he couldn’t quite understand, but that they could only go by such testimony as they had.”
“Exactly,” he said sententiously.
She wheeled softly on him, and looked him full in the eyes. “What other testimony was there to offer?”
“We are getting a long way from our starting-point,” he answered evasively. “We were talking of a more serious matter.”
“But a matter with which this very thing has to do, Neddie Dibbs. There’s a mystery somewhere. I’ve asked Archie; but he won’t say a word about it, except that he doesn’t think you were to blame.”
“Your brother is a cautious fellow.” Then, hurriedly: “He is quite right to express no opinion as to any mystery. Least said soonest mended.”
“You mean that it is proper not to discuss professional matters in society?”
“That’s it.” A change had passed over Dibbs’s face—it was slightly paler, but his voice was genial and inconsequential.
“Come and sit down at the Point,” she said.