The next moment she had called sharply: "Go away, Jimmy, till I call for you! Go and look out of the window for Rhoda!"
Then she turned and faced the woman who had taken two quick, running steps towards her. Insolently she smiled into her eyes.
"That was it, wasn't it?" she said.
Mrs. Jeffries did not fight white. The blood had thronged to her head until her very lips seemed swollen; Miss Levey could hardly have spoken more thickly. She spoke, too, in a passionate ellipsis than which Louie's own five words did not go more straight to the heart of the matter.
"Oh, you would if you could—I've known that a long time!" she cried. "Wouldn't you just—rather! You'd do it if it was only to give me one for myself! I know you."
Louie thought she rather liked her for making a fight of it. She still smiled. "Then that was it?" she said.
Evie flushed even more deeply. "You didn't suppose I didn't know all about that absurd meeting, did you?" she said, with a still darker flush.
"Dear me, no. I've known for weeks that you 'knew'—if we mean the same thing. Perhaps we don't, though. Anyway, I can quite understand your wanting to see for yourself. Miss Levey can't tell you everything."
Evie's inability to speak for mere fury was so evident that Louie, after watching her for a moment, continued:
"As for that picture, naturally I wanted to keep it. I'm sure you'll see that for yourself."