“Yes!”

“Why didn’t you wait?”

Her gaze locked with his incredulously. “You think I could have waited?”

“I understand,” he put in hastily. “That’s why I made no attempt to detain you. The situation was awkward.”

She laughed. It might have been a cry from the soul.

“Awkward, nothing more!” he hurried on. “I admit, it looked damning. I, myself, would have judged as you did. But I give you my word—”

She swept it aside.

“Jarvis tried to keep me from going up. That alone proves—”

“Jarvis is a servant, with the view point of his class.”

[324]
]
She uttered the thought that had been spinning round in her brain. “He would scarcely have tried to protect you if that had been her first visit.”