"Tell her, if you will, that I am well and not in want," she
answered. "Tell her, too, that I refuse to send my address.
Tell her that the one aim of my life is to keep the knowledge of
my whereabouts a secret from her."
Tavernake relapsed into silence. He was thinking. Mysteries had
no attraction for him--he loathed them. Against this one
especially he felt a distinct grudge. Nevertheless, some
instinct forbade his questioning the girl.
"Apart from more personal matters, then," he asked after some
time, "you would not advise me to enter into any business
negotiations with this lady?"
"You must not think of it," Beatrice replied, firmly. "So far as
money is concerned, Elizabeth has no conscience whatever. The
things she wants in life she will have somehow, but it is all the
time at other people's expense. Some day she will have to pay
for it."
Tavernake sighed.
"It is very unfortunate," he declared. "The commission on the
letting of Grantham House would have been worth having."
"After all, it is only your firm's loss," she reminded him.
"It does not appeal to me like that," he continued. "So long as
I am manager for Dowling & Spence, I feel these things
personally. However, that does not matter. I am afraid it is a
disagreeable subject for you, and we will not talk about it any
longer."
She lit a cigarette with a little gesture of relief. She came
once more to his side.
"Leonard," she said, "I know that I am treating you badly in
telling you nothing, but it is simply because I do not want to
descend to half truths.
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