“Late last night.” Nina moved uneasily; she knew Mrs. Parsons’ predilection for scandal.
“And where—” with gentle insistence.
“In Rock Creek Park.” Nina’s hoarse voice rasped Mrs. Parsons’ ears. She was sensitive to sound. “Ben was here when Kitty returned with Ted Rodgers, and he came right home and brought me back to stay with Kitty.”
Mrs. Parsons eyed her in silence, noting every detail of her pretty morning dress as well as the unusual redness of her eyelids and the nervous twitching of her hands.
“How fortunate for you,” she exclaimed. Nina looked up and caught her eyes; for a moment their glances held, then Nina looked away.
“I don’t catch your meaning,” she faltered.
“No?”—with a rising inflection which implied doubt, and Nina blushed painfully. Mrs. Parsons avoided looking at her; instead she inspected the furniture in the parlor and shuddered. “Such taste in decoration,” she said calmly. “But then Kitty can change all that with the fortune Miss Susan Baird left to her. What a sensation the news of her wealth has made in Washington! Has no one asked you how Miss Baird acquired it?”
Nina’s color slowly ebbed away. The eyes she turned on Mrs. Parsons were like some hunted animal.
“You—you know?” she stammered.
Mrs. Parsons nodded her head.