Her first and, indeed, only communication reached Mrs. Wylie the morning after her interviews with Theo Trist and Captain Huston. It was only a few words scribbled on the back of a visiting card, and slipped into an envelope previously addressed and stamped:
'Whatever you do, keep Theo and Alice apart.'
Mrs. Wylie turned the card over and read the neatly-engraved name on the other side. Then she read the words aloud, slowly and thoughtfully, once more:
'Whatever you do, keep Theo and Alice apart.'
'Brenda knows,' reflected the practical woman of the world, 'that Huston is jealous of Theo. She also knows that I am quite aware of this jealousy. It would be unnecessary to warn me of it; therefore this means that Brenda has discovered a fresh reason.'
She broke off her meditations at this point by rising almost hurriedly, and walking to the window. For a considerable time she watched the passing traffic; then she returned to the fire-place.
'Poor Brenda!' she murmured—'my poor Brenda! And ... Alice is so silly!'
The connection between these two observations may be a trifle obscure to the ordinary halting male intellect; but I think I know what Mrs. Wylie meant.
Later on in the day she sent a note to Captain Huston, requesting him to come and see her, and by the same messenger despatched a few words to Theo Trist—her reserve force—forbidding him to come near.
'My reserves,' she said to herself as she closed the envelope energetically, 'are thus rendered useless; but Brenda is reliable. I must do as she tells me.'