"What?" Stainton started so that he almost unseated her.
"I didn't go to the Boussingaults," she repeated.
"But, dearest, how—What?—Where were you? You mean to say that you stayed here, alone, in this hotel?"
She nodded.
Stainton was amazed; he was shocked that she could have deceived him and sorely troubled at the effect of this on the Boussingaults.
"You never told me," he said. "You might have told me, Muriel. Why did you do such a foolish thing? Why did you do it?"
Muriel stood up. She turned her back toward him.
"I don't know," she said. "I—Oh, you know I couldn't bear that man!"
"But you might have told me, dear. Why, all my letters went there! Then you never got my letters?"
She shook her head.