"Very. Mr. Verinder will have to wait for his coup, thanks to you."
"You mean...?" The question hung fire on her lips.
"Go on, neighbor."
"No. It was something I had no business to ask." The cheeks beneath the dusky eyes held each a patch of color burning through the tan.
"Then I'll say it for you. You were going to ask if they would really have caught me with the goods. Wasn't that it?"
She nodded, looking straight at him with the poise of lithe, slim youth he knew so well. Her very breathing seemed for the moment suspended while she waited, tremulous lips apart, for his answer.
"Yes."
"You mean that ... you are a highgrader?"
"Yes."
"I ... was afraid so."