"What excuse did you give to Kendal for following me in this way?"
"We told him we had an important message to give you before you started."
"Important message! That was pretty thin. I'd have thought of something cleverer than that if I'd been you. You are a precious pair of conspirators. Can't you see that it's you—with your ridiculous suspicions—that have given me away?"
Norah answered her.
"Oh, Vee-Vee," she said, "we hadn't any suspicions. The message was to tell you that Charlie was in the train. We knew you didn't know it."
To this Viola said coldly, "Walter didn't."
I tried to reassure her, but she waved me away with her hands and implored me to "let her think."
"Well," she said presently, "it isn't as bad as you've tried to make it, even with Kendal thrown in. You came rushing after me to give me a message, and you have given me a message, and now you'll go and tell Kendal that it's all right, and thank him nicely for catching me up, and you rush home again, and I go on quietly to London by the next train."
"Yes, dear," said Norah. "And I'm going up with you while Wally rushes home and follows with Nurse and Baby and the luggage by the morning train."
"That's all very well," said Viola, "but who explains to Jimmy?"