read it."

"Nonsense."

"I am positive she has read it."

"Then Gillier must have shown her a copy of it."

Charmian was silent for a minute. Then she said:

"You did not show it to anyone while you were at Constantine?"

"I didn't say that."

"Ah! You--you let Mrs. Shiffney see it!"

Her voice rose as she said the last words.

"I suppose I have a right to allow anyone I choose to read a libretto I
have bought and paid for," he said coldly, almost sternly.

"You did give it to Mrs. Shiffney then! You did! You did!"

"Certainly I did!"

"And then--then you come to me and say that Madame Sennier hasn't read
it!"

There was a sound of acute, almost of fierce exasperation in her voice.

"She had not read my copy."

"I say she has!"

"Mrs. Shiffney herself specially advised me not to show it to her."

"To her--to Madame Sennier?"

"Yes."

"Mrs. Shiffney advised you! Oh--you--oh, that men should claim to have
keener intellects than we women! Ah! Ah!"

She began to laugh hysterically, then suddenly put a handkerchief before
her mouth, turned her head away from him and pressed her face, with the
handkerchief still held to it, against the cushions of the divan. Her
body shook.

"Charmian!" he said. "Charmian!"

She looked up. All one side of her face was red. She dropped her
handkerchief on the floor.

"Do you understand now?" she said. "But, of course, you don't. Well,
then!"

She put both her hands palm downward on the divan, and, speaking slowly
with an emphasis that was cutting, and stretching her body till her
shoulders were slightly raised, she said:

"Just now, while Susan and you were in the garden, Armand Gillier asked
me if we would give up his libretto."

"Give up the libretto?"

"Sell it back to him for one hundred pounds. He also said he was very
poor. Do you put the two things together?"

"You think he fancies--"

"No. I am sure he knows he could resell it at an advance to Jacques
Sennier. Those two--Mrs. Shiffney and Madame Sennier--went to
Constantine with the intention of finding out what you were doing."

"Absurd!"

"Is it? Just tell me! Wasn't it Mrs. Shiffney who began to talk of the
libretto?"

"Well--"

"Of course it was! And didn't she pretend to be deeply interested in
what you were doing?"

Claude flushed.

"And didn't she talk of how other artists had trusted her with secrets
nobody else knew? And didn't she--didn't she--"

But something in Claude's e