CHAPTER 25Ione did not know how long she stood there. The time might have been long, or it might have been short. It went by her. She came back from the distance to which her mind had retreated and began to think what she was going to do next.
There were two things.
She could walk into the study here and now and confront Geoffrey and the Delauny woman.
She could go quietly away and tell Allegra what she had overheard.
She couldn’t tell Allegra. The minute she thought of herself doing so it became a flat impossibility. Neither she nor anyone else could say what effect that kind of shock might have upon the balance of a wavering mind. She knew with a most positive certainty that nothing would induce her to risk it.
If she were to walk into the study it would force the situation with a v
