"What does it matter about me?"
"I am sorry you took it so hard—because—I knew it all the time."
"You knew it! What do you mean?"
"A nice old lady told me. She was staying in the house. She cornered me and told me a long story—the day after I met Miss Benedet."
"What an infamous old woman!"
"She called herself a friend of yours—warned me for your sake, she said, and because she has sons of her own."
"Oh! Has she daughters?"
"Two—staying in the house."
"I see. She told it brutally, I suppose?"
"Quite so."