"Mr. Maxwell!" I called.
He came back a few steps and stood facing us.
"You were leaving—that is, we were about to let you leave—under a false impression," I stammered breathlessly, all the time a sense of my doing something very much out of place strong upon me.
"False impression?" His eyes were glittering feverishly.
"Yes. It is true that we found the—the thing you mentioned in Sophie's bag that night, but she is no—dope-fiend."
He stood still as if he were petrified.
"Physicians carry those things in instrument cases," I went on, feeling that my explanation sounded very tame and inadequate. "Physicians carry them and so do nurses."
He looked at me a moment in utter bewilderment, then, slowly, comprehension dawned in his eyes. Even the understanding was going to be bitter to him, for there would be the humiliating confession that he would have to make to her that he had misjudged her.
As I said the word "nurses" Mrs. Chalmers moved a step forward and held up a warning hand.
"Ann," she exclaimed in a frightened whisper, "Richard said that this affair was not to be mentioned."