"Feathers!" she echoed, with quiet scorn. "Do you think that I should discuss you with him?"
"Somebody must have told you," he said doggedly.
Her brown eyes met his sorrowfully.
"You ought to have told me," she said.
The color rushed again to his handsome face.
"I know. I was a fool. I don't know why I went out with her. I hate the woman. . ." He really thought he did at the moment. "But you had gone off with Feathers, and it was rottenly dull alone."
She interrupted very gently.
"I thought you would prefer to be left alone; you could have come had you chosen."
83 "I know, but . . . oh, dash it all, there isn't any excuse for me, I know, and you behaved like a brick just now, Marie—letting her think that you didn't care."
There was an eloquent silence; then Marie said: "I only let her think what was the truth! I don't care at all! You are quite free to do as you like. We agreed that, didn't we? But I think, for your own sake, it would be better to tell me next time anything like that happens. I hate Mrs. Heriot to think that you have a secret with her and from me—it looks bad, Chris."