"It was very curious, very curious indeed. Do you know I rather doubt if she wholly and entirely believed it herself."
Billy was puzzled for a moment, thinking that some difficult mental problem had been offered for his digestion.
"Oh, I see," he said, as he opened his own door with his latch-key. "He only meant that she was telling a lie; I suspect he is right too."
CHAPTER XXXI
THE NURSING OF A SLANDER
Meanwhile, in shadowy corners of Westmoreland House, Miss Carew lived a monotonous but anxious life. For days together she hardly saw Molly, and then perhaps she would be called into the big bed-room for a long talk, or rather, to listen to a long monologue in which Molly gave vent to views and feelings on men and things.
Molly's cynicism was increasing constantly, and she now hardly ever allowed that anybody did anything for a good motive. She had moods in which she poured scandal into Miss Carew's half excited and curious mind, piling on her account of the wickedness and the baseness of the people she knew intimately, of the sharks who pursued her money, and, most of all, she showered her scorn on the men who wanted to marry her.
Listening to her Miss Carew almost believed that all the men Molly met were divorcés, or notoriously lived bad lives, and hardly veiled their intention to continue to do the same after obtaining her hand and her money.