"Yes, but his scandal and our scandal——"
"Yours isn't in it with his. He's seen her."
Three faces turned to Nicholson's, as if it held for them the reflection of his vision. Miss Bickersteth's face was flushed with embarrassment that struggled with curiosity; Nina's was almost fierce in its sombre, haggard intensity; Laura's, in its stillness, had an appealing anxiety, an innocent distress. It was shadowless and unashamed; it expressed a trouble that had in it no taint of self.
Nicky met them with an admirable air of light-heartedness. "Don't look at me," he said. "I can't tell you anything."
"But—you've seen her," said Miss Bickersteth, seating herself at her tea-table.
"I've seen her, but I don't know her," he said stiffly.
"She doesn't seem to have impressed him favourably," remarked Miss Bickersteth to the world in general.
Nicky brought tea to Jane, who opened her eyes at him in deprecation of his alarming reticence. It was as if she had said, "Oh, Nicky—to please me—won't you say nice things about her?"
He understood. "Miss Holland would like me to tell you that she is charming."
"Do you know her, Jinny?" It was Laura who spoke.