She Came Back

“Very well staged,” he said. “Let me congratulate you on your make-up and your nerve, Miss Joyce.”

CHAPTER 5

She got out of her chair and stood facing him. “Philip!”

He nodded briefly.

“Philip. But not A

“Philip!”

“That doesn’t get us anywhere, does it? May I ask how you thought you could get away with a fraud of this kind? Very ingenuous of you, but perhaps you thought I’d be abroad-or better still a casualty, in which case I suppose you might have brought it off. It seems to have gone down with Lyn and Aunt Milly, but it doesn’t go down with me, and I’ll tell you why. When A

She kept her eyes on his face.

“You brought A

“And why am I supposed to have done that?”

She said, “I think you made a mistake-it was A

Philip said softly, “So that’s your story-I left you on the beach?”

“I think-no, I am sure-you only thought that you were leaving A

“That’s a pretty damnable thing to say-” He checked himself. “This is what happened. I carried A

She was standing against the mantelshelf, her left arm carelessly laid along it, the hand drooping. There was a platinum wedding-ring on the third finger, and, overlapping it, the big diamond-set sapphire that had been A

“I am very glad to know. It has hurt all this time not knowing how you could have left me. Because it wasn’t A

“No.”

“And in the morning you still didn’t recognize her? I suppose-well, I suppose it’s possible. There was a strong likeness. It must have been possible, because it seems to have happened. I won’t think, or let anyone else think, of the only other possibility.”

Philip said, “You know, you interest me very much. Won’t you be a little more explicit? I’d really like to know about this other possibility.”

“I’d rather not put it into words.”

“I’m afraid you’ll have to.”

All this time Milly Armitage had been just inside the door. She came forward now and sat on the arm of her usual chair. She really felt as if she couldn’t stand any more. Her head was buzzing and the furniture had begun to flicker. Lyndall hadn’t moved. Her hands held one another tightly. There was no colour in her face. Her eyes had a horrified look.

A

Philip was grey under his tan. His face had sharpened, his eyes were cold and angry. Milly Armitage found herself wishing that he would swear, or shout. Her father and her husband had always made a lot of noise when they were angry. There was something homely about it. She wished that Philip would make a noise.

Instead he said quite softly,

“So that’s the line. I see-I mistook A

She looked away. Those icy eyes were hard to meet.

“Philip-don’t! I didn’t want to say it-you know I didn’t- you made me. But it’s what people will say if you stick to this impossible story. Oh, don’t you see I’m trying to help you? Don’t you see that for both our sakes we’ve got to put some sort of face on it? It’s got to look like a genuine mistake. Do you think I want to believe it wasn’t? It must have been, and that’s what people have got to believe. You hadn’t seen me for three months-I’d got thin with all the worry-the likeness to A

He stepped back a pace.

“You’re not my wife.”

Milly Armitage couldn’t hold her tongue any longer. It was a wonder that she had held it so long. Her eyes on the hand with the sapphire ring, she said,

“A