His inflection invited remarks, nay, urged them, but there was only silence.
And then within V. Vivian, M.D., there woke a cold doubt, and gnawed him.
"Miss Heth--I must ask--for the whole moral question hangs on this ... Did he know that you were upset?"
Miss Heth cleared her throat, preparatory to rising. She saw now that she ought never to have consented to talk with this strange man at all. Mamma would have known that in advance.
"It is--rather absurd--for me to be asked to decide what he knew. He has assured you that--"
"But--I don't make myself clear, I see--the fact is that yours is the only assurance that will carry the smallest weight on that point.... He wasn't--may I ask?--actually in the boat when it went over, was he?"
"N-no. As to that--I believe he had just got out, but--"
"Did you think at the time that he knew you were upset?"
"Unfortunately, I am not a mind reader," she began with dignity, objecting seriously to these obstacles in the way of ending the interview. "Thrown without warning into the water, I could not look into his thoughts and see--"
"Quite so. But did he show in any way that he knew you were upset?"