Chapter 38

At this Dorothy Burt’s calm gave way. She trembled, her red lower lip quivered, and her eye-lids fluttered, almost as if she were about to faint. But, by a quick gesture, she straightened herself up, and, looking her interlocutor in the eyes said: “I trust I am not obliged to answer that very personal question.” Like a flash it came to Fessenden that her perturbation had been merely a clever piece of acting. She had trembled and seemed greatly distressed in order that Mr. Benson’s sympathy might be so aroused that …