"I've been very busy. I hadn't heard," he said, slowly. "Is it
- was it generally known?"
Had Natalie known, and kept it from him?
"I think not. Delight saw her and spoke to her, I believe."
"And you have no idea where she is now."
"None whatever."
He learned that night that Natalie had known, and he surprised a
little uneasiness in her face.
"I - heard about it," she said. "I can't imagine her making a
speech. She's not a bit oratorical."
"We might have sent out one of the cars for her, if I'd known."
"Oh, she was looked after well enough."
"Looked after?"
Natalie had made an error, and knew it.
"I heard that a young clergyman was taking her round," she said,
and changed the subject. But he knew that she was either lying or
keeping something from him. In those days of tension he found her
half-truths more irritating than her rather childish falsehoods.
In spite of himself, however, the thought of the young clergyman
rankled.
That night, stretched in the low chair in his dressing-room, under
the reading light, he thought over things carefully.
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