It was as if he really knew it wasn't, knew something that we didn't know, and was determined to keep his knowledge to himself.
And when I'd finished he said, "The whole thing's a mystery to me. I thought she was going to marry you." And then—"How she can stick him I can't think. D'you mind, old man, if I go to bed? No, I don't want any whisky and soda, thanks."
It was Pavitt, of all people, who threw a light on it when he brought the whisky.
"Beg your pardon, sir," said Pavitt, "but I believe I never told you that the Captain called here one day when you was in Belgium."
"Are you quite sure, Pavitt? He called the day I left."
"Yes, sir, I remember his calling the day you left. It's only just come back to me that he called again, three days after, I think it was. I told him you was gone to Belgium, and he said that was all he wanted. He didn't leave no message, else I should have remembered. It was the young gentleman's likeness to Mrs. Jevons, sir, what fixed him in my mind."
I told Reggie this the next day as an instance of Pavitt's wonderful memory. "Only," I said, "he forgot to tell me that you called."
He smiled rather bitterly as if he remembered the incident well.
"Oh, I called all right," he said. "I wanted to know where you were."
After that Norah and I made it out between us. Not all at once, but bit by bit, as things occurred to us or as he suggested them.