“Why not? He concluded because a woman happened to be there with me—alone—Bah,” he broke off, “that end of it’s not worth considering! What you think is all that concerns me. And what you think is only too evident.”
“What I think—what I think!” Her hands clasped and unclasped incessantly. Her voice came strangled.
He had been pacing up and down. Now he pulled a chair close to hers.
“But you’re wrong, dear. It’s circumstantial evidence and worth as much. I came back to-day unexpectedly, looked in at the uptown office before going home and found a message from Lilla, asking me to see her this afternoon without fail. I called her hotel and arranged to meet her at the stable. Jarvis had notified me that Lord Chesterfield was seedy and it occurred to me that by having her come there, I’d save time.”
“You—” the words came haltingly as if difficult to speak—“you didn’t seem in haste when I saw you.”
“Come now—be sporting, dear.” He tried to make a laugh cut the tension. “You know my interest in the theater.”
“Yes—I know.”
“Well, Lilla’s consulted me any number of times about one thing or another. And she has a Bohemian way of establishing palship that you don’t understand.”
“Don’t I?”
“No. I wouldn’t want you to. But the fact remains [325] ]that Lilla on the floor with a cigarette in her mouth means no more than another woman at the tea table.”