“Does she intend to join Mrs Fane in America?”
Now I felt hurt! Obviously, oh, quite obviously, he did not like me so much as he did! It was nothing to him where I lived—nothing to him where I went! A terrible feeling of loneliness overwhelmed me. Nobody cared! I pressed my lips together to prevent their trembling; behind my spectacles I blinked smarting eyes. A big brown hand stretched out and was laid over mine; a big soft voice asked tenderly:—
“Evelyn! How long is this tomfoolery to go on?”
We were standing facing one another across the table. I had darted behind its shelter in that first moment of shock and dismay. His face was lit with a mischievous smile; his hands were thrust into his trouser pockets; his eyes surveyed me with a horrible, twinkling triumph.
“Oh! Oh! Oh! You know!”
“Of course I know!”
“You have known all the time? From the very beginning?”
“Not just at first! I’ll give you credit for taking me in for a short time—a very short time! Then you gave yourself away.”
“How? How?”
“When you do a thing at all, you ought to do it thoroughly. Your disguise was incomplete.”