Barry flung back his head and stared at her with blazing eyes.
"No!" he replied sharply. "No, I'm not! I'd give anything under heaven if there could ever be a chance for me to be."
The words were scarcely out of his mouth before he realized, with a pang of dismay, that he had been stung into saying something he never meant to say. All day he had been telling himself over and over again that no word concerning his feelings for Shirley Rives should ever pass his lips, yet now he had blurted it out like a blundering fool. The color flamed into his face, and his lids drooped before the curious expression in Mrs. Wilmerding's eyes.
"Indeed!" she said tersely. "And may I ask why you think there isn't?"
Lawrence stared at her in astonishment. Then he pulled himself together and glanced again at the crumpled letter.
"If this is true——" he began.
But Mrs. Wilmerding cut him short with a most emphatic snort.
"Fiddlesticks!" she snapped. "You don't believe that, I hope? Haven't you any faith at all in Shirley? It's all a lie from beginning to end."
"But what——"
"I don't know," she broke in, frowning. "I don't understand it yet, but I know it's a lie."