ut you'd never have known it! He
withdrew, imperturbable and serene. I think that Loft should be added to
the god and the brute, to form a trinity of impeccable illegibility.

At a sign from Jenny I took my tea and drank it. She sat very quiet,
exhausted as it seemed, yet still thinking hard. I did not speak.

"A long call, wasn't it?" she said at last, and a faint smile flickered
on her lips.

"It was--and it seemed so, I daresay."

"How did he look?"

"Exceedingly well-content. And Lacey seemed most contented with his
appearance."

She shrugged her shoulders and smiled again rather contemptuously. I set
down my cup and came to her. "Well, good-night, Lady Jenny," I said.

She looked up at me and suddenly spoke out the truth--in a hard voice,
bitter and resentful.

"With prayers and vows--yes, and tears," she said, "I've saved a week."

"Before you give your answer?"

"No. The answer is given. Before the engagement is announced."

"If you've given your answer, announce it to-night."

She did not resent my counsel. But she shook her head. "I've fought that
battle with him already. I--I can't." She rose suddenly to her feet and
stood before me. "I've done it. I've managed to do it. It's done--and I
stand by it. But not to-day! I must have a week." She stretched out her
hands to me in appeal; there was a curious mixture of mockery and of
passion in her voice. She mocked me for certain--perhaps she mocked
herself, too; yet she was strongly moved. "Dear old, kind,
little-understanding Austin, you must give poor Jenny Driver her last
week!"

The last week, which she must have, did all the mischief.

CHAPTER XIII

THE BOY WITH THE RED CAP

Jenny had failed with Powers; that seemed to be the state of the
case--or, at least, her success was so precarious as to put her whole
position in extreme peril. Neither storm nor sunshine, neither wrath nor
cajolery, had won him securely. Behind each he could discern its true
object--to gain time, to tide over. When Jenny had finished her
equivocal proceedings, when she had settled down either to Fillingford
or to Octon--Octon's success must still have seemed a possibility to the
accomplice of their meetings--what would she do with her equally
equivocal partner? Reward him? Yes, if she had trusted him. He knew very
well that she trusted him no longer; her threats and her wheedling
combined to prove it. Presumably Mr. Powers was acquainted with the
parable of Th