Elinor half rose, terrified.

“Not the police, Jim?”

“Sit down,” he said, in a tone Lily had never heard him use before.  And to Lily, more gently:  “I am not altogether surprised.  As a matter of fact, I have known it for some time.  Your esteemed grandfather seems to take a deep interest in your movements these days.”

“Do you mean that I am being followed?”

“I’m afraid so.  You see, you are a very important person, and if you will venture in the slums which surround the Cardew Mills, you should be protected.  At any time, for instance, Aunt Elinor and I may despoil you of those pearls you wear so casually, and—­”

“Don’t talk like that, Jim,” Elinor protested.  She was very pale.  “Are you sure he is watching Lily?”

He gave her an ugly look.

“Who else?” he inquired suavely.

Lily sat still, frozen with anger.  So this was her grandfather’s method of dealing with her.  He could not lock her up, but he would know, day by day, and hour by hour, what she was doing.  She could see him reading carefully his wicked little notes on her day.  Perhaps he was watching her mail, too.  Then when he had secured a hateful total he would go to her father, and together they would send her away somewhere.  Away from Louis Akers.  If he was watching her mail too he would know that Louis was in love with her.  They would rake up all the things that belonged in the past he was done with, and recite them to her.  As though they mattered now!

She went to the window and looked out.  Yes, she had seen the detective before.  He must have been hanging around for days, his face unconsciously impressing itself upon her.  When she turned: 

“Louis is coming to dinner, isn’t he?”

“Yes.”

“If you don’t mind, Aunt Nellie, I think I’ll dine out with him somewhere.  I want to talk to him alone.”

“But the detective—­”

“If my grandfather uses low and detestable means to spy on me, Aunt Nellie, he deserves what he gets, doesn’t he?”

When Louis Akers came at half-past six, he found that she had been crying, but she greeted him calmly enough, with her head held high.  Elinor, watching her, thought she was very like old Anthony himself just then.

CHAPTER XVIII

Willy Cameron came home from a night class in metallurgy the evening after the day Lily had made her declaration of independence, and let himself in with his night key.  There was a light in the little parlor, and Mrs. Boyd’s fragile silhouette against the window shade.

He was not surprised at that.  She had developed a maternal affection for him stronger than any she showed for either Edith or Dan.  She revealed it in rather touching ways, too, keeping accounts when he accused her of gross extravagance, for she spent Dan’s swollen wages wastefully; making him coffee late at night, and forcing him to drink it, although it kept him awake for hours; and never going to bed until he was safely closeted in his room at the top of the stairs.