“In that case, young sir, you seek something I cannot give you.”
She would have left it vaguely there, between truth and untruth. But he demanded more.
“You mean, you do not know ... that ... that she has left you?”
She braced herself to the righteous falsehood.
“That is what I mean.”
Still he would not rest content. Haggard-faced he drove her into the last ditch of untruth.
“When did she leave you? Tell me that, at least.”
“Two years ago. After she had been with me a year.”
“And whither did she go? You must know that!”