Mary dropped her rallying tone and went on gravely:
"Unless I'm treated with confidence and sincerity, I can't continue to
attend Mr. Saffron."
"That's your ultimatum, is it, Doctor Mary?"
She nodded sharply and decisively. Beaumaroy meditated for a few
seconds. Then he shook his head regretfully. "It's no use. I daren't
trust you," he said.
Mary laughed again, this time in amazed resentment of his impudence. "You
can't trust me! I think it's the other way round. It seems to me that the
boot's on the other leg."
"Not as I see it." Then he smiled slowly, as it were tentatively. "Or
would you--I wonder if you could--possibly--well, stand in with me?"
"Are you offering me a--a partnership?" she asked indignantly.
He raised his hand in a seeming protest, and spoke now hastily and in
some confusion. "Not as you understand it. I mean, as you probably
understand it, from what I said to you that night at the Cottage. There
are features in the--well, there are things that I admit have--have
passed through my mind, without being what you'd call settled.
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