"
Summerhay's voice grew high.
"I think you've gone mad. I don't know what you mean."
"Oh, yes, you do. Did you get a letter yesterday marked 'Immediate'?"
Ah! So it WAS that! To meet the definite, he hardened, and said
stubbornly:
"Yes; from Diana Leyton. Do you object?"
"No; only, how do you think it got back to you from here so quickly?"
He said dully:
"I don't know. By post, I suppose."
"No; I put it in your letter-box myself--at half-past five."
Summerhay's mind was trained to quickness, and the full significance of
those words came home to him at once. He stared at her fixedly.
"I suppose you saw us, then."
"Yes."
He got up, made a helpless movement, and said:
"Oh, Gyp, don't! Don't be so hard! I swear by--"
Gyp gave a little laugh, turned her back, and went on coiling at her
hair. And again that horrid feeling that he must knock his head against
something rose in Summerhay. He said helplessly:
"I only gave her tea. Why not? She's my cousin. It's nothing! Why should
you think the worst of me? She asked to see my chambers. Why not? I
couldn't refuse."
"Your EMPTY chambers? Don't, Bryan--it's pitiful! I can't bear to hear
you."
At that lash of the whip, Summerhay turned and said:
"It pleases you to think the worst, then?"
Gyp stopped the movement of her fingers and looked round at him.
"I've always told you you were perfectly free.
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