He felt confused, as well he might, but he tried to pass it off.
"Did you find Dibbs _On Currency_, my dear?" he inquired, with a ghastly smile, as he dropped her hand.
"I did not," said Sophia, gravely; "I was otherwise engaged. Peter, what have you been doing?"
"What have I been doing?" he said. "Why, it's not a minute since you went into the study to get that book; look at the clock and see!"
"Don't appeal to the clock, Peter,--answer my question. How have you been occupied?"
"I've been waiting for you to finish that article on Bi-metallism," he had the hardihood to say. "Deuced well-written article it is, too; so clear!"
"I don't refer to what you were doing here," said Sophia. "What were you doing on board the _Boomerang_?"
"It--it's so long ago that I really forget," he said. "I--I read Buckle on deck, and I talked with a man named Perkins--nice fellow he was--manager of a bank out in Australia."
"It's useless to prevaricate, Peter!" she said. "What I want to know is, who was that girl, and why should she attempt to destroy herself?"
"Girl!" he stammered. "How do you know that any girl attempted anything of that sort?"
"How do I know, Peter?" said Sophia. "I will tell you how I know. _I was on board the 'Boomerang,' too!_"
At this awful piece of intelligence, Peter dropped into his arm-chair, speechless and quaking. What would come next he could not tell; but anything seemed possible, and even probable, after that!
_Sophia Gives an Explanation, and Requests One.--Her Verdict.--Peter Overruled._
"Before I say anything else," said Sophia, who was still standing upon the hearth-rug, gazing down upon the wretched Peter as he sat huddled up in his chair, "you would probably like to know how I came to follow you to that steamer. It is a long story, but I will tell you if you wish to hear?"
Peter's lips moved without producing any articulate sounds, and Sophia proceeded:
"Some weeks ago," she said, "one afternoon when you had gone out for a walk, I found what seemed to be a loose cheque on the carpet. I knew how carelessly you leave things about, and I picked it up, and found that, though it was like a cheque in other respects, it was rather curiously worded. I could not understand it at all, but it seemed to have something to do with the steamer you came home from Australia in; so, intending to ask you for an explanation when you came in, I thought in the meantime I would put it in some safe place where I should be sure to see it, and I put it behind the clock; and then--oh, Peter!----"