The midland journal., 1943-12-03
CHAPTER VII

LOBBY and RuSSelTS car moved out
of the drive. "Why don't we have
a night-cap together?"
''Oh, thanks a lot" Anne said.
"But I've really"
"I'd like to talk to you, Miss Hey
wood" Mr.. Taussig said quietly.
Mr.. Taussig was looking at her
intently.
"All right" she said. 'In the
barr"
He waited for her to sit down,
and signalled the waiter. He might
be making a mistake, he thought.
'I may as well come to the point
at once, Miss Haywood" he said
pleasantly.
Anne's throat tightened.
"All right" she said. "What Is
it,"
The waiter put their glasses down
on the table. Mr.. Taussig raised
his. "-To our better understand
ing, Miss Haywood.
Anne raised hers. She was aware
of what Barbara had called the
veiled scrutiny behind his impreg-
nable lenses.
ct is your interest in me that
confuses me slightly, Miss Hey
wood"
Anne looked at him blankly.
"What do you mean. Mr.. Taussig?"
"Oh, not interest d'amour, Miss
Haywood. I don't mean that. I
mean interest in my shall we
say, belongings? Last night, for ex-
ample?"
Anne sat perfectly calm and COM
pletely controlled while the whole
bottom of kind of lovely dream
inside her dropped out in shattered
fragments. Miguel had told him.
81 was just returning the compli-
ment, Mr.. Taussig," she said. Her
voice was calm and detached. She
thought she saw him start, but she
couldn't be sure.
May I ask what you mean by
that, Miss Heywood?" he asked qui-
etly.
"You went through my bags yes
terday, didn't you, Mr.. Taussig?"
He was staring at her in open and
undiSguised astonishment. Anne
misunderstood. What if she was
wrong? What if it hadn't been he at
all? She didn't know-she was only
guessing, actually.
He recovered his composure in an
instant. If she had lied, he wouldn't
have known
What makes you think I did
such an incredible thing?"
'Your thumb prints, Mr.. Taus-
sig," Anne said. If she'd been
wrong, he could deny it, and she
would apologize.
He thought quickly. His hands
had been moist from the heat. He
smiled.
II think you've jumped to a very
hasty conclusion, Miss Haywood.
You have a bag just like one of
mine. The porter put yours in my
room. opened it, but ] closed it
at once, of course, and had the por-
ter take it to your room and bring
mine to me. You'll find there's usu-
ally simple explanation for most
things, Miss Haywood.
'Then I apologize profoundly, Mr..
Taussig," Anne said. "I'm glad we
talked about it,
She got up and held out her hand.
She could see the indecision in the
cold blue gleam of his eyes fastened
on hers. He wasn't sure whether
she was telling the truth or not.
And she knew he had lied.
Anne lay in the luminous half-dark
under the oblong tent Of cheesecloth
around her bed, trying to think with
out feeling trying to separate
the things she knew from the things
she suspected but did not actually
know, without coloring them with
her own emotions.
''But I'm not wrong about it." she
told herself. II saw it. It's one
Of the things I know even if
don't know what it's all about"
Actually there were only two 9TH
-er things she really knew, when she
came down to it. One was that
Taussig had opened her bag and
gone through her letters and had not
told the truth about it. The other
was that Miguel had told him she
was in his room.
The rest of it was in that danger
ous border line of intuition and sus-
picion. That was what she had to
watch. Still, even Barbara French
had recognized what she called
Taussig's veiled scrutiny.
Anne shook her head. It didn't
do any good to 60 over every de-
tail of q day or two days the way
she was doing.
Nights a magnifying glass any
way" she thought.
She reached down, pulled the thin
blanket up from the foot of the bed,
and settled back into the pillows.
She wasn't going toSthink shout it,
and she wasn't going to think about
Miguel.