VI
Her start could hardly have been more sudden had I asked her where Alan was a few moments after he had been seen playing at the cliff's edge.
"Audrey Cunningham? She was at Harrogate last, I think—or Scarboro—why?"
"Why was her engagement broken off?"
She made an abrupt, impatient gesture. Evidently I had plunged her back into an older mood.
"Oh, I don't know! I'm tired to death of—of everything! Why do you want to remind me of it? I was just beginning to forget a little. Oh, why didn't we leave London a week earlier! We nearly did—Philip was only waiting for Billy to get those pictures back—we should have escaped everything then!"
I soothed her. "Yes; but about the engagement. I could make very little of your letter. You said things were tangled and difficult and so on. What did you mean, Mollie?"
She was silent.
"Do you mean that you won't discuss Mrs. Cunningham with me?"