Tell you--?
MURIEL.
About last night--this woman--
SOPHY.
Her Grace?
MURIEL.
Yes, yes.
SOPHY.
Oh, why, I haven"t anything to tell, darling.
MURIEL.
Haven"t anything to--?
SOPHY.
You see, I couldn"t help remembering what you"d called me--mean, and despicable, and all the rest of it; and the feeling came over me that you were right, that I had been sneaky. And so, after I"d attended to her Grace, I--I went straight to bed.
MURIEL.
[_Sitting._] Oh, yes. Then you didn"t attempt to--to watch?
SOPHY.
No.
MURIEL.
[_Faintly._] Oh!
SOPHY.
Aren"t you glad?
MURIEL.
Glad!
SOPHY.
Why, you were certain that the word or two I"d overheard meant nothing wrong.
MURIEL.
I said so.
SOPHY.
Said so!
MURIEL.
[_Turning to her with clenched hands._] Yes, but at the same time you put the dreadful idea into my head, Sophy, and I"ve not been able to dismiss it for one moment since.
SOPHY.
[_Under her breath._] Oh!
[_Sitting._
MURIEL.
[_Lifting her veil._] There! you can see what I"ve been going through.
SOPHY.
[_Looking at her._] I"m so sorry.
MURIEL.
[_Looking at_ SOPHY.] _You_ look rather washed out too. Haven"t you slept, either?
SOPHY.
[_Turning her head away._] Not over well. [_Falteringly._] Then, after all, it would have been better if I _had_ spied on her?
MURIEL.
Anything--even that--would have been preferable to this uncertainty.
SOPHY.
[_To herself, her jaw falling._] Oh--!
MURIEL.
[_Looking towards the window._] Has _he_ arrived?
SOPHY.
Yes. [MURIEL _rises, then_ SOPHY.