Her manner changed, became charged once more with heavy coquetry.
“I’m so relieved to hear you say so. Of course I was not insinuating anything.”—(So she had been, after all!)—“But it is so comforting to be reassured. I have so much confidence in you, Dr. Elliott. You cannot imagine what a pleasure it is to me to see the delightful friendship between you and my frail, little daughter-in-law, poor, dear child. Let me see, you have been friends for over a year, have you not?”
She encountered the murderous gleam in his eye with a bland smile.
“You are mistaken,” he said curtly. “It is not quite four months since I attended Mrs. Petrovskey for the first time!”
“Oh, dear me! I had imagined you had met long before that. How could I have made such a mistake?”
“I’m sure I have no idea.” A frown between his heavy brows, he regarded her gravely.
“Well, well, it has all been very sudden, hasn’t it? You seem like an old friend to us all. Why, Claire positively raves over you.”
“I cannot imagine Mrs. Petrovskey raving over anything or anybody, least of all a prosaic doctor like myself.”
“Are you prosaic? Oh, I cannot believe that.” She laid a heavy hand on his reluctant arm. “You haven’t those romantic brown eyes for nothing. Oh, must you be going?”
He had edged gradually over to the door and stood with one hand placed upon the knob.