Page:The Other House (London, William Heinemann, 1896), Volume 2.djvu/50

36 "Have you one by chance as to why, if you thought them both so safe, you interfered?"

"'Interfered' is a hard word," said Tony. "I felt a wish to testify to my great sympathy with Paul from the moment I heard—what I didn't at all know—that this was the occasion on which he was, in more senses than one, to present his case."

"May I go so far as to ask," said Mrs. Beever, "if your sudden revelation proceeded from Paul himself?"

"No—not from Paul himself."

"And scarcely from Jean, I suppose?"

"Not in the remotest degree from Jean."

"Thank you," she replied; "you've told me." She had taken her place in a chair and fixed her eyes on the ground. "I've something to tell you myself, though it may not interest you so much." Then raising her eyes: "Dennis Vidal is here."

Tony almost jumped. "In the house?"

"On the river—paddling about." After which, as his blankness grew, "He turned up an hour ago," she explained.

"And no one has seen him?"

"The Doctor and Paul. But Paul didn't know"