"My dear Vi, consider. Could your conduct have been more suggestive? Don't I know you? Aren't I aware that you're the coolest, calmest, most levelheaded of young women? Do you suppose that you acted up to that character last night? My dear Vi, something was wrong with you, so wrong that it had turned the girl I knew into one I didn't. What could it be? We know all about each other that there is to know, so that I knew that there was only one thing which could have on you such a dire effect. How did you know that leather bag was in that chest? Mind you, I'm not asking a question; I'm not trying to force your confidence; I'm only putting it to you if it isn't obvious that there was only one conclusion I could draw?"
The girl was sitting up in bed, white-faced, wild-eyed.
"Then, now you know why I wished that I was a ghost."
Again her ladyship observed her closely, her head a little on one side.
"Aren't you--doesn't it occur to you as being just barely possible that you're a goose?"
"Why am I a goose?"
"May I speak?"
"I can't stop you. You've evidently come here for that express purpose."
"I know you will misunderstand me, and fly at me, and scratch me, and do all sorts of pretty things."
Her ladyship sighed; her tone breathed resignation.