Here Evie flamed. "'Naturally!'" she broke out. Louie gave an almost humorous shrug.
"Well, surely it's natural?"
"Natural!... As if his coming in wasn't the merest accident!"
"Oh, I know that; but what are you here for then? And now that you have been and seen, what can you possibly do about it?"
Evie's lips seemed as thick as if a bee had stung them. She broke out again.
"'It!'—I like your 'it,' Miss Causton or Mrs. Causton or whatever you call yourself!"
Louie coolly smoothed the folds of her blouse. "By 'it,' I mean, of course, my loving your husband," she said. "As you guessed, I knew that you knew about that picture. But it's really a much older thing than that! I don't quite know how old; while you were still engaged to somebody else—as old as that anyhow. And as it's purely my affair, and even he can't stop it, I wonder what you can possibly do!—I'm 'Miss' Causton, by the way."
Louie had almost a genius for these last words that could be taken up; she smiled again as Evie, taking them up, said: "Oh, are you!"
"Well, I don't think I need be longer than I like, but that's neither here nor there. The important thing at present is whether you were wise to come to-day or not. I wonder whether you'd let me give you a piece of advice?"
And that, as Evie still stood speechless with rage, might be described as the end of the first round. There was a long pause during which the two women stood looking at one another. Then the second round began, with a rapid exchange of half sentences.