"Not here," said Jim. "Not anywhere, in fact; but we soon shall have one. I was not referring to this place. It is all right enough, but we are here only for a few weeks. When I said 'home,' I meant the city that both my wife and I regard as home. I meant New York."
"Then you are returning soon?"
"Three weeks from to-day."
Muriel looked at Jim.
"Is not this a sudden decision?" the guest inquired.
"Not at all. Muriel and I talked it over the other day and quite agreed, didn't we, dear?"
She tried to say "yes," but, though her lips moved, she was mute. She could only nod.
"Mrs. Stainton," said von Klausen, looking narrowly at Muriel, "did not mention it to me when we met to-day."
"How did that happen, dear?" asked Jim. His eyes met hers. He smiled pleasantly. "You must have forgotten."
She wanted to ask him how he had taken her qualified assent to a departure a month hence to be an expression of willingness to sail in three weeks, but there seemed to be something underlying his obvious manner that made her wish to hide her surprise. She wondered if there were anything underlying his manner; she wondered if what troubled her were not the sense of her deception of him.