"No. She married him just before he went. Then in South America, after two years, she ran away again. That's all he knows."
"That's a pretty story," said Dwight contemptuously.
"He says if she'd been alive, she'd been after him for a divorce. And she never has been, so he thinks she must be dead. The trouble is," Lulu said again, "he wasn't sure. And I had to be sure."
"Well, but mercy," said Ina, "couldn't he find out now?"
"It might take a long time," said Lulu simply, "and I didn't want to stay and not know."
"Well, then, why didn't he say so here?" Ina's indignation mounted.
"He would have. But you know how sudden everything was. He said he thought about telling us right there in the restaurant, but of course that'd been hard—wouldn't it? And then he felt so sure she was dead."
"Why did he tell you at all, then?" demanded Ina, whose processes were simple.
"Yes. Well! Why indeed?" Dwight Herbert brought out these words with a curious emphasis.
"I thought that, just at first," Lulu said, "but only just at first. Of course that wouldn't have been right. And then, you see, he gave me my choice."