"Shawnee Springs?"
"No, no. Another place."
"Was that where you knew Miss Archer?"
Jean turned a sick face upon him, but Paul's own countenance was without guile.
"I've overheard you and Amy mention her once or twice," he explained.
"Yes," she stammered. "We both knew her there."
"Out of breath?" he said, still too observant. "I thought we were taking our usual gait."
She blamed the heat and led him to speak of other things, but the day was spoiled. She debated seriously whether it were not wise to make a clean breast of her refuge history, but Paul's belief in her unworldliness had its sweetness, and the fit chance to dispel his illusion somehow had not come when Stella, for weeks almost forgotten, so involved the coil that frankness was impossible.
XV