He sat looking at the fire for a few minutes longer, and then, getting up, went to his wife's room. She was seated at the table, writing a note, and Toby noticed that her cheque-book was lying by her hand. He abstained carefully from looking even in the direction of the note she was writing, and stood by the window with his broad back to the room.
"Lily," he said, "will you not tell me who it is who wants to borrow money from you? For I think I know."
"Toby, you are simply odious," she said. "It is not fair of you to say that."
"I am not a bit odious," he said. "If I had wanted not to play fair, I could have looked at the envelope you left in the dining-room grate. Of course, I burnt it without looking at it. But I thought of looking at it. I didn't; that is all."
Lily received this in silence. For all his freckles, she admired Toby too much to tell him so. And this simple act, necessitated by the crudest code of honour, impressed her.
"That is true," she said. "All the same, I don't think it is quite fair of you to ask me who it was."
Toby came across the room, and sat down by the fire. The suspicion had become a certainty.
"Lily, if it is the person I mean," he said, "it will be a positive relief to me to know it. Why, I can't tell you. I haven't spoken to you before about the whole thing; but since we went down to Goring on that snowy day I have had a horrible feeling that something is wrong. Don't ask me what: I don't know--I honestly don't know. But if it is only money I shall be glad."
"How much?" The moment after he was ashamed of the question; it was immaterial.
Toby poked the fire aimlessly, and a dismal, impotent anger against Kit burned in his heart.
"Borrowing! Kit borrowing!" he said at length.
"Of course, I haven't let her borrow," said Lily quietly, sealing the note.
"Oh, Toby, how you dot your i's this morning!" she said. "Shall I unseal what I have written, and put a postscript saying you wish it to be understood that so much interest is charged on a loan? No, I am talking nonsense. Come, it is time to go out. Kit is coming to see me this afternoon, soon after lunch, so we must be back before two."
"She asked me if I would be in at three. I know no more. Oh, my good child, why look like a boiled owl?"