"It's needless to suppose anything of the
sort, sir; she would not have given me an opportunity."
"Don't fence with me, Mountjoy! I'll put it in a milder way, if you
prefer being humbugged. Do you feel any interest in that perverse girl
of mine?"
Hugh answered readily and warmly: "The truest interest!"
Even Mr. Henley was human; his ugly face looked uglier still. It
assumed the self-satisfied expression of a man who had carried his
point.
"Now I can go on, my friend, with what I had to say to you. I have been
abroad on business, and only came back the other day. The moment I saw
Iris I noticed something wrong about her. If I had been a stranger, I
should have said: That young woman is not easy in her mind. Perfectly
useless to speak to her about it. Quite happy and quite well--there was
her own account of herself. I tried her maid next, a white-livered
sulky creature, one of the steadiest liars I have ever met with. 'I
know of nothing amiss with my mistress, sir.' There was the maid's way
of keeping the secret, whatever it may be! I don't know whether you may
have noticed it, in the course of your acquaintance with me--I hate to
be beaten."
"No, Mr. Henley, I have not noticed it.
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