"I shall come again if I may," Louie replied.
Already she knew that she would go again—must go again—though it was only when she had left the house behind her that she began to ask herself why. Then followed another dialogue. The critical Louie began it.
"Well, what did I tell you? His engagement's off, and he's getting on in his business. I'm right so far, eh?"
"Too right," the other Louie muttered. "Let it rest."
"Will it let you rest—that's the question! Well, what do you want next—his engagement to Evie Soames?"
"I don't want anything. I've got my boy and my living to earn. That fills my life."
"Then why are you going to see Kitty again? Come, don't shirk it. You know why you're going. You're going to——"
"I'm not!"
"You're going to protect him! If that poor creature thinks she guesses, you're going to tell her the notion's perfectly absurd! You're going to lie to her! If she has weak fancies, you're going to see that they're just as wide of the truth as they can be. Do you still deny what the truth is? After whatever the tale is he's been telling about drunkenness and a black eye? Is he that kind of man? Isn't that just as likely as not to be one of his blinds? A man has to be cunning, you know, to hoodwink a coroner's jury, but somehow he seems to have done it."
"I don't know anything about it."