the blanket for fear of hearing burglars in
the night--priding herself indeed on this timidity, and telling people
that when you once had had a husband you lost your nerve for sleeping
alone. So Caroline knew there was no help to be had in that quarter,
and yet she did not like to startle Miss Ethel after that fall among
the half-built houses which had been more than an ordinary faint,
though no one made anything of it.

However, she knocked again on the door, blows that seemed to echo
through the whole of Thorhaven. She glanced nervously over her
shoulder, picturing the male inhabitants of Emerald Avenue and
Cornelian Crescent and Sapphire Terrace, hastily flinging on trousers
and boots to see what the matter was, while their wives made
shrill-voiced ejaculations from the bed. She saw it all quite plainly
on the darkness as the noise reverberated through the still night.
Suddenly she lost her nerve. That kiss at the gate still hovered in
the back of her consciousness, waiting for a fuller realization; but it
had left her fluttering and tingling with emotion, so that she was less
mistress of herself than usual.

Not that she had not been kissed before, and by others besides Wilf;
but it had never been like this, because now for the first time a kiss
woke a response which bewildered her. She began to cry.

Then she tried to pull herself together. After all, it could not be
very late. What an idiot to be standing there crying, when Aunt
Creddle lived only a ten minutes' walk away! Of course she could go
and stay the night there. Very likely Aunt Creddle might be still up,
for she took in washing for one or two people, and sometimes did the
ironing after the children were in bed----

Caroline gave a sob of relief as she got to this, and turning her back
on the house she began to run stumbling down the drive. When she
reached the open road and was free from the heavy shadow of the privet
hedge, she felt her self-confidence gradually coming back to her.

All the houses in Emerald Avenue were in darkness, but on nearing the
Creddles she saw a little glimmer of light through the glass pane of
the front door. It was as she had hoped, for in response to her knock,
Mrs. Creddle herself unchained the door and peered out into the dark.
"Is that somebody from Mrs. White's?" she asked. "I thought she wasn't
expecting until next week at the----" The good woman broke off
suddenly and her voice went up several notes: "