“You want absolutely to interfere...?” Mrs Fyne nodded just
perceptibly.... “Well—for my part ... but I don’t really know how
matters stand at the present time. You have had a letter from Miss de
Barral. What does that letter say?”
“She asks for her valise to be sent to her town address,” Mrs Fyne
uttered reluctantly and stopped. I waited a bit—then exploded.
“Well! What’s the matter? Where’s the difficulty? Does your husband
object to that? You don’t mean to say that he wants you to appropriate
the girl’s clothes?”
“Mr Marlow!”
“Well, but you talk of a painful difference of opinion with your
husband, and then, when I ask for information on the point, you bring
out a valise. And only a few moments ago you reproached me for not
being serious. I wonder who is the serious person of us two now.”
She smiled faintly and in a friendly tone, from which I concluded at
once that she did not mean to show me the girl’s letter, she said that
undoubtedly the letter disclosed an understanding between Captain
Anthony and Flora de Barral.
“What understanding?” I pressed her. “An engagement is an
understanding.”
“There is no engagement—not yet,” she said decisively. “That letter,
Mr Marlow, is couched in very vague terms. That is why—”