It was plain to me, interested auditor that I was, that Mary was waiting for some sign of encouragement or approbation from Anthony--but it did not come. She glanced at him, but his eyes were inscrutable.
"You don't help me much," she said, rather deliciously. "You could--you know!"
"I would much prefer you to tell your story entirely in your own way. It is impossible for me, at this stage of the conversation, to judge whether it will possess any significance--please proceed."
She looked rather aggrieved at this, and I wondered what was coming next.
"I haven't told my father. I haven't told my mother--the only person that knows is my sister, Helen--Mrs. Arkwright, you know--I told her soon after it happened. I have had a talk with her over it, Mr. Bathurst, and she approves of my telling you." She clasped her hands. "'_Nil nisi bonum de mortuis est_,' they say, don't they, and although I'm not going to say anything at all bad--I feel that I'm betraying a confidence--exposing to the world something that he would have regarded as intimate and private--that's why I hesitated and seemed to be in a difficulty just now." She looked at Anthony earnestly, as though probing his mind for his opinion on the matter.
"I appreciate your diffidence, Miss Considine, and I think I can gauge exactly what your feelings are."
She smiled with gratification. "Do you know, that's very nice of you ... that will make it easier for me to know that. What I want to tell you is this--Gerald Prescott was in love with me and had asked me to be his wife."
I gasped! Consummate effrontery I called it, even though the man was lying dead now.
Anthony appeared to take the news very quietly.
"During the luncheon interval of Friday--the last day's cricket we had."
"I don't wish to appear inquisitive, and believe me I am not asking idly or frivolously--what was your reply?"
Mary blushed a little and her eyes fluttered in my direction.
"I will tell you, Mr. Bathurst, I told him that I would give him his answer the next day--that was all I told him."
"I am going a little further then--what was your answer going to be?"
She looked at me again, then shook her head.
"I don't know, Mr. Bathurst. To be perfectly frank with you, I don't really know--he was too good an athlete to take chances with."