I smiled, but made no direct answer to her question.
“I am aware of it by the same means that I know that Feo Ashwicke and Beryl Wynd are one and the same person.”
She started quickly.
“Who told you that?” she asked, with a strange flash in her eyes.
I smiled again, answering, “I think it would be best if you confided in me in this matter, instead of leaving me to obtain the truth for myself. Remember, you have called me here to save your cousin, and yet, by her side, while her young life is slowly ebbing, we are engaged in a battle of words. Now tell me,” I urged, “how did this occur?”
She shook her head.
“Shall I begin?” I suggested. “Shall I say that you came up with Miss Beryl from Atworth yesterday, quite unexpectedly, in order to keep an appointment? That you—”
“How did you know?” she gasped again. “How did you know our movements?”
“I merely ask whether this is not the truth,” I responded calmly. I had noticed that the furniture in the room was undusted, and therefore knew that they had returned to town unexpectedly. “Shall we advance a step further? I think, if I am not mistaken, that there was a strong reason for your return to town, and also for keeping your presence in London a secret. That is the reason that you communicated with your friend.”
“With whom?”