Wayne," she
said. "Now you have come, we can settle the whole question."
"And just what is the question?" asked Mrs. Wayne. She sat down,
looking distressed and rather guilty. She knew they were going to ask
her what she knew about all the things that had been going on, and a
hasty examination of her consciousness showed her that she knew
everything, though she had avoided Pete's full confidence. She knew
simply by knowing that any two young people who loved each other would
rather marry than separate for a year. But she was aware that this
deduction, so inevitable to her, was exactly the one which would be
denied by the others. So she sat, with a nervously pleasant smile on
her usually untroubled face, and waited for Adelaide to speak. She did
not have long to wait.
"You did not know, I am sure, Mrs. Wayne, that your son intended to run
away with my daughter?"
All four of them stared at her, making her feel more and more guilty; and
at last Lanley, unable to bear it, asked:
"Did you know that, Mrs. Wayne?"
"Oh, dear!" said Mrs. Wayne. "Yes. I knew it was possible; so did you.
Pete didn't tell me about it, though."
"But I did tell Mrs. Farron," said Pete.
Adelaide protested at once.
"You told me?" Then she remembered that a cloud had obscured the end of
their last interview, but she did not withdraw her protest.
"You know, Mrs. Farron, you have a bad habit of not listening to what is
said to you," Wayne answered firmly.
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