'I have not the least conception.'
'Do you know?'
'I do not.'
'Have you any reason to suppose that he's alive?'
I hesitated. Whether it was or was not a lie which I told, I could not say.
'None whatever.'
'You see, aunt: there's his answer for you.'
'For reasons of his own, Mr. Howarth has chosen to conceal the truth. But he does know; and he knows I know.'
The old lady's persistence roused me.
'May I ask, Lady Desmond, on what grounds you base your assertion?'