Slowly she replaced the useless notes in the little silken bag
which had held them.
"Ah! I see you understand," he observed, watching her with some amusement.
She looked at him with a desperate demand in her eyes.
"Brett, what did you mean to do? What was your plan--if Ann had come?" she
asked in a low, shaken voice.
He laughed.
"Can't you guess? Really, Cara, I think I complimented you on your
perspicacity too soon! It seems to be--halting a little, shall we
say?--now."
"You didn't ask her here just for the pleasure it would give you--there was
something else--"
"It was partly for that. I at least made sure of a few hours alone with
her!" A note of passion roughened his voice for a moment. Then he forced
it back and his blue eyes laughed at her again, audaciously. "But it was
partly for the _dis_pleasure which I thought it might give to some one
else."
"_Eliot!_"
"Even so. He's not got precisely what you'd call an equable temperament,
has he?"
"And you knew"--slowly--"that if he discovered Ann had been here--"
"Exactly"--with a mocking bow. "You've guessed it. 'The marriage
arranged'--would not take place."
Cara stared at him in frank horror.
Pages:
447
448
449
450
451
452
453
454
455
456
457
458
459
460
461
462
463
464
465
466
467
468
469
470
471