She began to laugh hysterically, then suddenly put a handkerchief before her mouth, turned her head away from him and pressed her face, with the handkerchief still held to it, against the cushions of the divan. Her body shook.
"Charmian!" he said. "Charmian!"
She looked up. All one side of her face was red. She dropped her handkerchief on the floor.
"Do you understand now?" she said. "But, of course, you don't. Well, then!"
She put both her hands palm downward on the divan, and, speaking slowly with an emphasis that was cutting, and stretching her body till her shoulders were slightly raised, she said:
"Just now, while Susan and you were in the garden, Armand Gillier asked me if we would give up his libretto."
"Give up the libretto?"
"Sell it back to him for one hundred pounds. He also said he was very poor. Do you put the two things together?"
"You think he fancies—"
"No. I am sure he knows he could resell it at an advance to Jacques Sennier. Those two—Mrs. Shiffney and Madame Sennier—went to Constantine with the intention of finding out what you were doing."