A deep flush overspread Jenny’s face.  She turned away quickly in order that it might not be seen.  Emmy still continued busy with her thoughts.  It occurred to her to be surprised that Jenny should be fully dressed.  The surprise pressed her further onward with the narrative.

“And then, of course, we found Pa.  Wasn’t it strange of him to do it?  He couldn’t have been there long....  He must have waited for you to go up.  He must have listened.  I must find another place to keep it, though he’s never done such a thing before in his life.  He must have listened for you going up, and then come creeping out here....  Why, there’s his candle on the floor!  Fancy that!  Might have set fire to the whole house!  See, you couldn’t have been upstairs long....  I thought you must have been, seeing the fire was black out.  Did you go to sleep in front of it?  I thought you might have laid a bit of supper for us.  I thought you would have.  But if you were asleep, I don’t wonder.  I thought you’d have been in bed hours.  Did you hear anything?  He must have made a racket falling off the chair.  What made you come down again?  Pa must have listened like anything.”

“I didn’t come down,” Jenny said, in a slow, passionless voice.  “I hadn’t gone to bed.  I was out.  I’d been out all the evening ... since quarter-to-nine.”

iv

At first Emmy could not understand.  She stood, puzzled, unable to collect her thoughts.

“Jenny!” at last she said, unbelievingly.  Accusing impulses showed in her face.  The softer mood, just passing, was replaced by one of anger.  “Well, I must say it’s like you,” Emmy concluded.  “I’m not to have a moment out of the house.  I can’t even leave you....”

“Half-an-hour after you’d gone,” urged Jenny, “I got a note from Keith.”

“Keith!” It was Emmy’s sign that she had noted the name.

“I told you....  He’d only got the one evening in London.”

“Couldn’t he have come here?”

“He mustn’t leave his ship.  I didn’t know what to do.  At first I thought I couldn’t go.  But the man was waiting—­”

“Man!” cried Emmy.  “What man?”

“The chauffeur.”

Emmy’s face changed.  Her whole manner changed.  She was outraged.

“Jenny!  Is he that sort!  Oh, I warned you....  There’s never any good in it.  He’ll do you no good.”

“He’s a captain of a little yacht.  He’s not what you think,” Jenny protested, very pale, her heart sinking under such a rebuke, under such knowledge as she alone possessed.

“Still, to go to him!” Emmy was returned to that aspect of the affair.  “And leave Pa!”

“I know.  I know,” Jenny cried.  She was no longer protective.  She was herself in need of comfort.  “But I had to go.  You’d have gone yourself!” She met Emmy’s gaze steadily, but without defiance.

“No I shouldn’t!” It was Emmy who became defiant.  Emmy’s jealousy was again awake.  “However much I wanted to go.  I should have stayed.”