“Mabel, where are you going?”
Then, for the first time in her life, she lied to her husband frankly and fully.
“I am going to rest a little,” she said. “I shall see you presently at supper.”
He still hesitated, but she met his eyes, pale indeed, but so honest that he fell back.
“Very well, my dear.... Mabel, try to understand.”
He came down to supper half-an-hour later, primed with logic, and even kindled with emotion. The argument seemed to him now so utterly convincing; granted the premises that they both accepted and lived by, the conclusion was simply inevitable.
He waited a minute or two, and at last went to the tube that communicated with the servants’ quarters.
“Where is Mrs. Brand?” he asked.
There was an instant’s silence, and then the answer came: