“I wrote every day.”
“Yes, but you did not write you were coming here.”
“I didn't think it was necessary. You wrote every day, too, but you didn't write—you didn't write—”
“What?”
“A good many things that—that I have learned since I came here.”
“Indeed! What things? How did you learn them?”
“I—” John hesitated. To bring Captain Dan's name into the conversation would be, he felt, disloyal. And it would surely mean trouble for the captain. “I—I learned them with my own eyes,” he declared. “I could see. Gertie, I can't understand you.”
“And I don't understand you. I told you, at the only moment we have had together, I told you then that I would explain about the Chapter. I said that I must go or everything would be spoiled. You very nearly spoiled it by coming as you did.”
Mr. Doane's expression changed. It had softened when she reminded him of the whispered word in the drawing-room. The last sentence, however, brought his frown back again.
“Well!” he exclaimed. “Well—humph! that's easily remedied. I came in a hurry and I can go the same way.”