“Why, of course I haven’t!” I exclaimed. Was everybody going to ask me that?
“Well, something’s up, old boy. Charley has got the launch away with him—and I’ll bet he’s got her away with him, too. Charley lied this morning.”
“Is lying, then, so rare with him?”
“Why, it rather is, you know. But I’ve come to be able to spot him when he does it. Those little bulgy eyes of his look at you particularly straight and childlike. He said he had to hunt up a man on business—V-C Chemical Company, he called it—”
“There is such a thing here,” I said.
“Oh, Charley’d never make up a thing, and get found out in that way! But he was lying all the same, old man.”
“Do you mean they’ve run off and got married?”
“What do you take them for? Much more like them to run off and not get married. But they haven’t done that either. And, speaking of that, I believe I’ve gone a bit adrift. Your fire-eater, you know—she is an extraordinary woman!” And Beverly gave his mellow, little humorous chuckle. “Hanged if I don’t begin to think she does fancy him.”
“Well!” I cried, “that would explain—no, it wouldn’t. Whence comes your theory?”
“Saw her look at him at dinner once last night. We dined with some people—Cornerly. She looked at him just once. Well, if she intends—by gad, it upsets one’s whole notion of her!”