I regret that any guest of mine should have been subjected to a suspicion so outrageous." Catherine laughed softly.
"Not outrageous really, dear Lord Maltenby," she said.

"I do not quite know of what I have been suspected, but I am sure Colonel Henderson would not have asked me these questions if it had not been his duty." "If you had not been a guest in this house, Miss Abbeway," the Colonel assured her, with some dignity, "I should have had you arrested first and questioned afterwards." "You come of a race of men, Colonel Henderson, who win wars," she declared graciously.

"You know your own mind." "You will be joining us presently, I hope ?" Lord Maltenby enquired from the door.
"In a very few minutes," she promised.
The door closed behind them.

Catherine waited for a moment, then she sank a little hysterically into a chair.
"I cannot avoid a touch of melodrama, you see," she confessed.

"It goes with my character and nationality.