“Well, I hadn’t exactly taken count of the fact that I was going to love you. And when the blow came I realized that if I’d been lucky enough to make you care anything for me, you couldn’t go on acting to me. You’d have to tell me—and I wanted you to, because you couldn’t help it. That night when I had you in my arms, I thought some sort of admission would come. When it didn’t and you ignored all my attempts to see you, I could only conclude I’d lost out.”
“You didn’t guess—”
“Not until to-night.”
She still groped uncertainly, not able to fasten on any one fact. “It was Kane, then, who told you where I lived.”
“No. Your little old woman here.”
“My little old woman?”
“She’s a canny soul. Must have found one of my notes that you brought home from the theater or something like that, because she looked me up one day and offered to sell me some interesting information about you. I paid her not to sell it and threatened her with jail if she went to anybody else. Told her she was guilty of a criminal offense that could send her up for twenty years. [63] ]I think I made it strong enough to shut her up for the rest of her days.”
“She’s been collecting from me just the same straight along.”
He flung back his head. “I said she was canny. Before I go West I’ll have another talk with her.”
“You—you’re going to-morrow?”