“Why, Grace, you can’t mean this!” He slowed down the car the better to talk. “God knows I did the best I could. I couldn’t help being surprised when they came in. And you never can tell how Evelyn’s going to take anything.”
“Oh, yes; it was Evelyn you were troubled about; you weren’t at all worried about me! When you came out of your trance and tried to explain how I came to be there the mischief was already done. Of course she wouldn’t listen to you then. You certainly made a mess of it.”
“I don’t understand you at all! I swear I did the best I could.”
“Well, it was a pretty poor best! Please mind what you’re doing; you’re still so nervous you’ll land in the ditch in a minute.”
Thus admonished he steadied himself at the wheel. Her anger had expended itself and she was now silently staring ahead at the snow covered road.
No word had passed between them for several minutes and Grace, absorbed in her own thoughts, was hoping that he wouldn’t attempt to discuss the matter further. Her respect for him was gone; she disliked him cordially, seeing him only as a timid, evasive person whose primary impulse was self-protection. He might play on the wrong side of a forbidden wall but the moment he was discovered he would scramble for safe territory.
He touched her hand so suddenly that she started and snatched it away with a feeling of aversion.
“We’ve both been thinking about what happened back there,” he began. “I don’t know just where it leaves me; I don’t know how Evelyn is going to take it.”
He paused, bending forward while he waited for some encouragement to go on.
“I don’t care how Evelyn is going to take it! I thought I’d made it clear that I didn’t want to talk of your private affairs any more. They don’t interest me in the least.”