“That you do not love him.”
“Him?”
“James,” she snapped irritably. “Do you suppose I mean the policeman?”
I looked over at Jimmy. She had got me by the hand, and Jimmy was making frantic gestures to tell her the whole thing and be done with it. But I had gone too far. The mill of the gods had crushed me already, and I didn’t propose to be drawn out hideously mangled and held up as an example for the next two or three weeks, although it was clear enough that Aunt Selina disapproved of me thoroughly, and would have been glad enough to find that no tie save the board of health held us together. And then Bella came in, and you wouldn’t have known her. She had put on a straight white woolen wrapper, and she had her hair in two long braids down her back. She looked like a nice, wide-eyed little girl in her teens, and she had some lobster salad and a glass of port on a tray. When she saw the situation, she put the things down and had the nastiness to stay and listen.
“I’m not blind,” Aunt Selina said, with one eye on the tray. “You two silly children adore each other; I saw some things last night.”
Bella took a step forward; then she stopped and shrugged her shoulders. Jim was purple.
“I saw you kiss her in the dining room, remember that!” Aunt Selina went on, giving the screw another turn.
It was Bella’s turn to be excited. She gave me one awful stare, then she fixed her eyes on Jim.
“Besides,” Aunt Selina went on, “you told me today that you loved her. Don’t deny it, James.”
Bella couldn’t keep quiet another instant. She came over and stood at the foot of the bed.