He was considerably dashed on his return home, to find the door of his study still locked on the outside.  The gesture which on his leaving the room seemed so natural, brilliant and excusable, now presented itself to him as the act of a coarse-minded idiot.  He hesitated to unlock the door, but of course he had to unlock it.  Eve eat as if at the stake, sublime.

“Arthur, why do you play these tricks on me—­and especially when we are in such trouble?”

Why did he, indeed?

“I merely didn’t want you to run after me,” said he.  “I made sure of course that you’d ring the bell at once and have the door opened.”

“Did you imagine for a moment that I would let any of the servants know that you’d locked me in a room?  No!  You couldn’t have imagined that.  I’ve too much respect for your reputation in this house to do such a thing, and you ought to know it.”

“My child,” said Mr. Prohack, once again amazed at Eve’s extraordinary gift for putting him in the wrong, and for making him still more wrong when he was wrong.  “This is the second time this morning that I’ve had to surrender to overwhelming force.  Name your own terms of peace.  But let me tell you in extenuation that I’ve discovered your offspring.  The fact is, I got her in one.”

“Where is she?” Eve asked, not eagerly, rather negligently, for she was now more distressed about her husband’s behaviour than about Sissie.

“At Ozzie’s.”  As soon as he had uttered the words Mr. Prohack saw his wife’s interest fly back from himself to their daughter.

“What’s she doing at Ozzie’s?”

“Well, she’s living with him.  They were married yesterday.  They thought they’d save you and me and themselves a lot of trouble....  But, look here, my child, it’s not a tragedy.  What’s the matter with you?”

Eve’s face was a mask of catastrophe.  She did not cry.  The affair went too deep for tears.

“I suppose I shall have to forgive Sissie—­some day; but I’ve never been so insulted in my life.  Never!  And never shall I forget it!  And I’ve no doubt that you and Sissie treated it all as a great piece of fun.  You would!”

The poor lady had gone as pale as ivory.  Mr. Prohack was astonished—­he even felt hurt—­that he had not seen the thing from Eve’s point of view earlier.  Emphatically it did amount to an insult for Eve, to say naught of the immense desolating disappointment to her.  And yet Sissie, princess among daughters, had not shown by a single inflection of her voice that she had any sympathy with her mother, or any genuine appreciation of what the secret marriage would mean to her.  Youth was incredibly cruel; and age too, in the shape of Mr. Prohack himself, had not been much less cruel.

“Something’s happened about that necklace since you left,” said Eve, in a dull, even voice.

“Oh!  What?”

“I don’t know.  But I saw Mr. Crewd the detective drive up to the house at a great pace.  Then Brool came and knocked here, and as I didn’t care to have to tell him that the door was locked, I kept quiet and he went away again.  Mr. Crewd went away too.  I saw him drive away.”