"—And that's what gets me!—you tell her everything, and don't even know that you tell. Just hypnotized! Answer my questions: the morning after I told you what I meant to do—standing there at the fence by the gate—confiding in you, telling you everything—I say, the next morning, didn't you tell Grace Noir all about it?"
"Certainly not."
"You had a conversation with her, didn't you?"
Abbott tried to remember, then said casually, "I believe we did meet on the street that morning."
"Yes," said Fran ironically, "I believe you did meet somewhere. Of course she engaged you in her peculiar style of inquisitorial conversation?"
"We went down the street together."
"Now, prisoner at the bar, relate all that was said while going down the street together."
"Most charming, but unjust judge, not a word that I can remember, so it couldn't have been of any interest. I did tell her that since she— yes, I remember now—since she was to be out of town all day, I would wait until to-morrow to bring her a book she wanted to borrow."
"Oh! And then she wanted to know who told you she would be out of town all day, didn't she?"
Abbott reflected deeply, then said with triumph, "Yes, she did. I remember that, too. She asked me how I knew she was going to the city with Bob Clinton. And I avoided telling her—it was rather neat. I merely said that it was the understanding they were to select the church music. Not another word was said on the subject."