“My darling, what are you talking about?  Is my nose—­what is the matter with my nose?” She vaguely felt of her nose in horror.

“He’s in love with her.  There’s no mistake.  And, will you believe me, mamma, she is encouraging him!  Positively!  Why—­why, it’s utterly contemptible!  Oh, dear, what are we to do?”

Mrs. Rodney looked blankly at her daughter, who had thrown herself in a chair.  She gasped and then gave vent to a tremulous squeak.

“In love!  Your father?  With whom—­who is she?”

“Father?  Oh, Lord, mother, I didn’t say anything about father.  Don’t cry!  It’s another man altogether.”

“Not Freddie Ulstervelt?” quavered Mrs. Rodney, pulling herself together.  “After all he has said to you—­”

“No, no, mamma,” cried her daughter irritably.  “Freddie may be in love with her, but he’s not the only one.  Mamma!” She straightened up and looked at her mother with wide, horror-struck eyes, “Roxbury Medcroft is madly in love with Constance Fowler!”

Mrs. Rodney did not utter a sound for fully a minute and a half.  She never took her eyes from her daughter’s distressed face.  The colour was coming back into her own, and her lips were setting themselves into thin red lines above her rigid chin.

“I’m sorry, Katherine, that you have seen it too.  I have suspected it for several days.  But I have not dared to speak—­it seemed too improbable.  What are we to do?” She sat down suddenly, even weakly.

“She’s not only leading Freddie on, but she’s flirting with her own brother-in-law—­her own sister’s husband—­her—­her—­”

“Her own niece’s father!  It’s atrocious!”

“She’s a horrid beast!  And I thought I loved her.  Oh, mamma, it’s just dreadful!”

“Katherine, control yourself.  I will not have you upsetting yourself like this.  You’ll have another of those awful headaches.  Leave it all to me, dear.  Something must be done.  We can’t stand by and see dear Edith betrayed.  She’s so happy and so trusting.  And, besides all that, we’d be dragged into the scandal.  I—­”

“And the Odell-Carneys too.  Heavens!”

“It must be stopped!  I shall go at once to Mrs. Odell-Carney and tell her what we have discovered.  It will prepare her.  She is the best friend I have, and I know she will suggest a way to put a stop to this thing before it is too late.  We must—­”

“Why don’t you speak to father about it first?”

“Your father!  My dear, what would be the use?  He wouldn’t believe it.  He never does.  I wonder if dear Mrs. Odell-Carney is in her room.”  The estimable lady fluttered loosely toward the door.  Her daughter called to her.

“If I were you, I’d wait a day or two, mamma.”  She was quite cool and very calculating now.  “It may adjust itself, and—­and if we can just drop a hint that we suspect, they won’t be so—­so—­well, so public about it.  I know—­I just know that Freddie will be disgusted with her if he sees how she’s carrying on.”  Katherine suddenly had realised that good might spring from evil, after all.