“She refuses. I’ve asked her half a dozen times already.”
“I wonder why! There must be some reason.”
“Of course there is. She is loyal to her friend. But tell me honestly, Charlie. Do you know the Doctor’s whereabouts?”
“I tell you honestly that I haven’t the slightest idea. The affair is just as great a mystery to me as to you.”
“But why have you kept away from me till to-day?” Barclay asked. “It isn’t like you.”
“Well,” answered Rolfe, with a slight hesitation, “to tell you the truth, because I thought your manner had rather changed towards me of late.”
“Why, my dear fellow, I’m sure it never has.”
“But you suspected me of being in that house on the night of the disappearance!”
“Of course, because I saw you.”
“Because you thought you saw me,” Charlie said, correcting him. “You surely would not misjudge me for that.”