Strefford still stared. "You mean to say you didn't know?"

"Who came after Nick and me...?" she insisted.

"Why, do you suppose I'd have turned you out otherwise? That
beastly Bockheimer simply smothered me with gold. Ah, well,
there's one good thing: I shall never have to let the villa
again! I rather like the little place myself, and I daresay
once in a while we might go there for a day or two .... Susy,
what's the matter?" he exclaimed.

She returned his stare, but without seeing him. Everything swam
and danced before her eyes.

"Then she was there while I was posting all those letters for
her--?"

"Letters--what letters? What makes you look so frightfully
upset?"

She pursued her thought as if he had not spoken. "She and Algie
Bockheimer arrived there the very day that Nick and I left?"

"I suppose so. I thought she'd told you. Ellie always tells
everybody everything."

"She would have told me, I daresay--but I wouldn't let her."

"Well, my dear, that was hardly my fault, was it? Though I
really don't see--"