CHAPTER IX.
SINCE YOU REFUSE, I THREATEN.
“Sit down, Nina,” he said, “I want to ask you something.”
“What is it?” she inquired. Her elevation of spirit was all gone, and with it her ecstasy of resentment and rebuke. All that she was conscious of now was the helpless feeling that he was immensely clever at ferreting out her inmost thoughts. Her fears were justified by his first question.
“Who has been talking to you about me?”
“Nobody,” she said, feebly.
“It was that fellow, Delessert. What did he say?”
Nina’s red lips immediately exhorted each other to wise silence by a strong and mutual pressure.
Captain Fordyce saw it, and although he had no conception of the innuendoes suggested to her, he immediately resolved to find some clue for his imagination to work upon.