At any cost he had to protect
her. Lee replied by saying that it was useless to tell her facts in her
present unreasonable humor. "Why didn't you tell me he had gone to
Washington?" she repeated; her tone had a sharper edge. "Was there
anything you needed to hide?" Just what, he demanded, did she suspect?
Fanny didn't know.
"Only I have had this worrying feeling. Did you go straight back from
the theatre or take a drive?" He was amazed at her searching prescient
questions; but his manner was admirable.
"New Yorkers are not very apt to drive around their Park at night. They
are rather familiar with it. There's the afternoon for that, and the
morning for the bridle paths. I won't go on, though, in such a
senseless and positively insulting conversation."
"You are not yourself since you returned," she observed acutely.
"Sunday night you were too queer for words. You couldn't talk to Mrs.
Craddock for more than a minute at a time. Did you call her Savina?"
Mrs. Craddock's name, he responded in a nicely interrogating manner, he
had thought to be Laura. She paid no attention to his avoidance of her
demand. "Did you?"
"No." His self-restraint was fast vanishing.
"I can't believe a word you say."
"Hell, don't ask me then."
"You must not curse where the servants can hear you, and I won't listen
to such talk, I'll leave the table. I wish you'd look in the mirror and
see how red and confused you are.
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