"Yes."
"But surely it may have been your husband who rang?"
"No, I don't think so. I'm quite sure not. Once Nigel gets off to sleep he doesn't wake easily."
"But I thought he suffered from insomnia!"
Directly he had said the words, Isaacson realized that he had made a false step. But it was too late to retrieve it. She was upon him instantly.
"Why?" she said, sharply. "Why should you think that?"
"You—"
"I never said so! I never said a word of it!"
She remembered the steps Nigel had said he heard when they were together upon the balcony, and beneath the rouge on her face her cheeks went grey.
"I never said a word of it!" she reiterated, with her eyes fastened upon him.