"That I told him he was his uncle's murderer?"
"Did you tell her to say that?" she asked, with a sudden inclination of her body toward me.
"I did. Did he give you the message?"
She made no answer. I pressed my advantage.
"On my honor I saw what I have told you at the cottage," I said. "I know what it means no more than you do. But before I came here I saw Constantine in London. And there I heard a lady say she would come with him. Did any lady come with him?"
"Are you mad?" she asked; but I could hear her breathing quickly, and I knew that her scorn was assumed. I drew suddenly away from her, and put my hands behind my back.
"Go to the cottage if you like," said I. "But I won't answer for what you'll find there."
"You set me free?" she cried with eagerness.
"Free to go to the cottage. You must promise to come back. Or I'll go to the cottage, if you'll promise to go back to your room and wait till I return."
She hesitated, looking again toward where the cottage was; but I had stirred suspicion and disquietude in her. She dared not face what she might find in the cottage.