“No. That is, I wished especially to see you.”
He followed her into the library and took the chair she indicated, while she seated herself in her own once more and regarded him with an air of grave, troubled inquiry. His face was pale, and beneath the glow of the lamp she saw that it was working as though with some strong emotion, although he strove to remain calm.
“Mrs. Storm, I want to ask you a personal question, and I hope you will not be offended. I should not have intruded at this hour, I should not have come to you at all, if your reply had not been vital to me. Will you tell me where you were yesterday?”
Leila laughed lightly but with an unmistakable note of confusion.
“That is a very simple question, Mr. Brewster. I was with Julie. We motored out to the Ferndale Inn——”
“Alone, Mrs. Storm?”
“Alone, of course. We went with Julie’s new roadster.” She paused, and then the words came in a little rush. “We didn’t start out with any—any definite object, but it was such a beautiful day and it grew late, almost noon before we knew it, and we found ourselves further from home than we had realized, so we ’phoned back—at least, I did——”
“Where did you ’phone from?”
“From the Inn, when we decided to stop there for lunch. But really, Mr. Brewster, I cannot quite understand——”
“I will explain in a moment. Tell me, was anyone there at the Inn whom you knew?”