“I told them nothing,” was her calm answer, in a voice that seemed inert and mechanical.
“I only arrived here an hour ago. I feared that you might be here before me. You, of course, delayed them by excuses, as I suggested.”
“Yes. We had tea on the way, and we came the longer way round, by Plymouth, as you told me.”
“It was lucky for you that you left the Millers as early as you did,” he said.
“Why?”
“Because they had a visitor. He came an hour or so after you’d gone. I found him talking to Lucie, and she introduced me. His name was Leaf.”
I saw that she started at mention of my name. But with admirable self-control she asked:—
“Well, and what did he want?”
“Wanted to see you. And what’s more, Lucie told me after he’d gone that he had once been engaged to you. Is that true?”
“I’ve known him a good many years,” was my loved one’s evasive answer, as though she feared to arouse his anger or jealousy by an acknowledgment of the truth.