“Well,” Virginia said, “he is not likely to be downstairs to-day, and, Stella, don’t be angry with me, but I must really ask you to leave this room.”

“Thank you,” Stella answered coldly.  “I am at home here, and I mean to stay so long as I choose.  It is you who are the intruder.  If you have any sense at all, you will go away and play with your dolls.  You can’t have left them very long, and I’m sure it is a more fitting amusement for you than ordering me about my father’s house.”

Virginia moved up and down the room.  The tears were already in her eyes; she was utterly and completely perplexed.

“Stella,” she said, “you know what sort of a man your father is.  If he learns that you have been here in this room, he will never forgive me.  He will send me home, and that would be hateful, for many, many reasons.  Do please be reasonable, and come away with me now into one of the other rooms.  I will do all that I can to bring you two together.”

Stella seemed to have made up her mind to quarrel with her cousin.  Her face was white and hard.  She laughed a little scornfully before she answered.

“You bring us together!” she exclaimed.  “Do you think that I don’t understand you better than that?  I know very well that you are much too pleased with your position here, and you are afraid that if my father forgave me and I came back, you would have to go home again.  Don’t think that I don’t understand.”

Virginia walked to the window, and stood there several moments looking out upon the avenue.  Her eyes were quite dry now, and a spot of colour was burning in her cheeks.  The injustice of her cousin’s words had checked the tears, but they had also achieved their purpose.  She turned slowly round.

“Very well, Stella,” she said, “I will not interfere with you any more, but I am going to do exactly what is my duty.  Will you leave this room or not?”

“When I am ready,” Stella answered, “not before!”

Virginia crossed the room, meaning to ring the bell.  Stella, springing quickly from her seat, caught her cousin up, and seizing her by the shoulders, turned her round.  Then she calmly locked the door of the room in which they were, on the inside.

* * * * *

About an hour afterwards, the elder of Phineas Duge’s secretaries, Robert Smedley, entered the bedroom at the top of the house with some precipitation, and turned a white face towards his master.  Phineas Duge, fully dressed, was entering some figures in a small memorandum book on the table before him.

“Mr. Duge,” the young man exclaimed, “forgive me for disturbing you, but I think that if you feel strong enough you ought to come downstairs into the library at once.”