"You are proposing to make a long stay," she said, slowly and venomously.
Collingwood did not answer her at all. He took a sheet of paper and wrote a few sentences upon it in a firm, bold handwriting.
When he had finished he held it up to her. "Will you read it through?" he said.
With the utmost carelessness she bent forward over the writing-table. Her manner was that of one who was reading some casual note.
"I have done so," she said at length.
Collingwood fell into her mood. "Now," he said, "if I had your signature to that, par exemple, there would be an end of Admaston versus Admaston and Collingwood, wouldn't there?"
Alice Attwill smiled. "That is obvious enough," she said.
Collingwood took the paper and opened the blotting-book, while Lady Attwill walked towards the fireplace.
She walked away with the same assumed air of indifference, but, when she heard the heavy leather-and-silver cover fall upon the table, she looked round and watched the man intently.
She saw him blot the confession upon a blank sheet at the beginning of the book, and then with the utmost care and deliberation turn over each separate leaf, scrutinising it like a man who looks at something through a microscope.