Jim began to fumble a little.
“She sort of—gave me the idea.”
Horatia was silent for a minute. She felt on dangerous ground and full of a kind of protective pity for this lover of hers who seemed so oddly unable to see the ridiculousness of what he proposed.
“Jim, do you remember telling me once that Rose Hubbell was dangerous?”
“I remember that I did, but I don’t feel quite that way about it now. Rose likes you very much, you see—and she knows how I feel.”
This time there was real hurt in Horatia’s tone.
“You told her—that?”
He tried to recoup. “Only as much as your sister knows and your aunt.”
Horatia remained cruelly silent. When she spoke again her words reverted to the subject in hand, but her tone was far more distant than they justified.
“I don’t think Christmas Lake is quite practicable.”