I paused. How should I tell her? How should I begin?
"You have suppressed from me certain knowledge of which you know I ought to have been in possession for my friend Digby's sake, and——"
"Ah! Digby Kemsley again!" she cried impatiently. "You've not been the same to me since that man disappeared."
"Because you know more concerning him than you have ever admitted to me, Phrida," I said in a firm, earnest voice, grasping her by the arm and whispering into her ear. "Now, be open and frank with me—tell me the truth."
"Of what?" she faltered, raising her eyes to mine with a frightened look.
"Of what Mrs. Petre has told me."
"That woman! What has she said against me?" my love demanded with quick resentment.
"She is not your friend, in any case," I said slowly.
"My friend!" she echoed. "I should think not. She——"
And my love's little hands clenched themselves and she burst again into tears without concluding her sentence.