“Yes, I do. I went to a school after we were married.” She cleared her throat. “Colin gave me the lessons as a present. Then, when I had my license, we shopped for a car for me, a two-door sedan with automatic shift. I have to sit on a cushion to see over the wheel. I picked it, but after a while Colin used it when he went down to the office and left me his car—it has a power seat. He thought I was an excellent driver.”

“What kind of a car did he have?”

“A Dresden-blue Cadillac convertible with power everything. Did you plan for your secretary to leave?”

Leland said, “You know, I asked you if you had anything you wanted to keep to yourself. You would not have told me to check for a record on you if there weren’t one there. I don’t know where this will lead, and neither do you, and I want to be sure that you know what you’re doing.”

“I was going to tell you anyway,” she said. “I was upset when I let it out like that. If you want your secretary back here to help you, that’s all right. I know that she will find out about it later. That doesn’t bother me; it’s just that I’ve found that with some people, life is less of a strain when they don’t know, or if they do find out, they don’t hear it from me. It doesn’t really apply to her because you wouldn’t have her around if she didn’t know how to take things. She doesn’t like me, but she doesn’t let it interfere with doing what you want her to do.”

“What makes you think that she doesn’t like you?”

“A certain crispness in her voice when we’re outside. You know, for a while I thought it was a proprietary interest that she had in you—that the ring on her finger was yours.”

Leland smiled. “Oh, no. She’s a baby. So are you, really—but never mind. I could say that I got her to leave so I could ask you to lunch, which I plan to do, but that isn’t true. I just didn’t get around to asking you while she was here. We have more to discuss, you and I, and it will be easier over something to eat. I have another reason to go out, though. If you accept, I’ll want to take us to a place where I may be able to transact some business of my own, personal business. It won’t take long.”

“It seems to be important to you,” she said.

“The point is, I can do it on my own time, if you prefer. We can go to a place other than the one I have in mind.”