Page:The Sacred Fount (New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1901).djvu/314

 evening. If you ask me what it showed him you ask more than I've either cared or had time to ask. Do you consider, for that matter"—she put it to me—"that one does ask?" As her high smoothness—such was the wonder of this reascendancy—almost deprived me of my means, she was wise and gentle with me. "Let us leave it alone."

I fairly, while my look at her turned rueful, scratched my head. "Don't you think it a little late for that?"

"Late for everything!" she impatiently said. "But there you are."

I fixed the floor. There indeed I was. But I tried to stay there—just there only—as short a time as possible. Something, moreover, after all, caught me up. "But if Brissenden already knew?"

"If he knew?" She still gave me, without prejudice to her ingenuity—and indeed it was a part of this—all the work she could.

"Why, that Long and Lady John were thick?"

"Ah, then," she cried, "you admit they are!"

"Am I not admitting everything you tell me? But the more I admit," I explained, "the more I must understand. It's to admit, you see, that I inquire. If Briss came down with Lady John yesterday to oblige Mr. Long"

"He didn't come," she interrupted, "to oblige Mr. Long!"

"Well, then, to oblige Lady John herself" 308