“You heard me talking to——” the girl was amazed; then a sudden thought seemed to come to her, and she stopped. “And then,” she said, searching Scanlon’s face, “what did I do?”
“You went away,” replied the big man. “I heard you go down the hall. But you came back, and it was then you struck the match.”
The girl’s golden head shook slowly.
“I did not go away and return,” she said.
“But I heard——”
“The first woman you heard was not I!”
It was now Mr. Scanlon’s turn to stare.
“Miss Knowles,” said he, “I don’t want you to think I’m trying to put anything at your door that shouldn’t be there. But you expected something to happen that night—I saw it in your face in the afternoon.”
The girl did not reply for a moment; she looked at him, steadily.
“I think I know what you mean,” she said, at last. “It was when you spoke of Mr. Ashton-Kirk coming that night. I was frightened then, as I was frightened a while ago when I was asked to await him here. I felt sure that if he were expected something was about to happen.”