Didn't stay an
hour."
"Did you take her driving?" This came in a
thin, piccolo tone-barely enough room for it to
escape through her lips. All the big drums and
heavy brass were now being moved up.
"No; had nothing to take her out in. Why do
you ask? What has happened, little--"
"Take anybody else?" she interrupted.
"No."
He spoke quite frankly and simply. At any other
time she would have believed him. She had always
done so in matters of this kind, partly because she
didn't much care and partly because she made it a
point never to doubt the word of a man, either by
suspicion or inference, who was attentive to her.
This time she did care, and she intended to tell him
so. All she dreaded was that the big horns and
the tom-toms would get away from her leadership
and the hoped-for, correctly played symphony end
in an uproar.
"Max," she said, turning her head and lifting
her finger at him with the movement of a conductor's
baton, "how can you lie to me like that? You never
went near your lawyer; you went to see Miss Billeton,
and you've spent every minute with her since
you left me. Don't tell me you didn't. I know
everything you've done, and--" Bass drums, bass
viols, bassoons--everything--was loose now.
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