expecting important intelligence.
She said in a low voice, but with an immense amount of facial gesticulation to take the place of sound, "Albertson told me you had an interview. What did you find out?"
For the first time Anthony realized that he had been an hour in the company of the false Miss Exeter without having even asked her true name. He might at least have done that. A weak man would have answered irritably that what between stray dogs drowning and Edna's children interrupting he had not had an opportunity to ask the woman anything.
But he was not weak. He simply told, her the truth. He saw that she accepted the story with reservations. A drowning dog was all very well, but how about her pearls?
Dinner ought to have been a terrible meal, with Edna bitter and suspicious and the two detectives looking in at the window every now and then--just to show that they were on the job; but, as a matter of fact, it was extremely gay and pleasant. Antonia was allowed to hover about the room in honor of her uncle's return, and Pearl and Anthony were--or appeared to be--in the highest spirits.
Need it be recorded that Pearl had on her best dress? It was a soft, black, shining crêpe which she had run up one afternoon in the spring when she felt most depressed about not being able to find a position.