“But I didn’t walk with Lord Ralles,” she cried. “The only person I walked with was Captain Ackland.”
That took me very much aback, for I had never questioned in my mind that it wasn’t Lord Ralles. Yet the moment she spoke, I realized how much alike the two brothers’ voices were, and how easily the blurring of distance and planking might have misled me. For a moment I was speechless. Then I replied coldly,—
“It makes no difference with whom you were. What you said was the essential part.”
“But how could you for an instant suppose that I could say what I did to Lord Ralles?” she demanded.
“I naturally thought he would be the one to whom you would appeal concerning my ‘insulting’ conduct.”
Madge looked at me for a moment as if transfixed. Then she laughed, and cried,—
“Oh, you idiot!”
While I still looked at her in equal amazement, she went on, “I beg your pardon, but you are so ridiculous that I had to say it. Why, I wasn’t talking about you, but about Lord Ralles.”
“Lord Ralles!” I cried.
“Yes.”