There was an occasional hiccup.

That, too, disappeared.

To play--or even think of playing--a game like that! She was despicable.

A silly little fool, too, to suppose that so keen a mind as Cutty's would not see through the artifice! What was happening to her that she could let such a thought into her head?
By and by she was able to pick up Cutty's narrative and review it.

Not a word about the drums of jeopardy, the mark of the thong round Hawksley's neck.