_sala_ afterward, searching for me, the windows had been
closed and locked fast and the police had declared there was no hole in
the convent wall, and that the wall itself would have been a difficult
drop even for a man.

I pounced upon this as a tangible fact. "Then some one in the house
must have closed and locked the window again; and there was a hole in
the wall, or how could I have gone through it? The drop was very bad
indeed, for my hat was crushed out of shape."

Poor father looked very much puzzled. "But about the wine--I don't
understand. Why did you do that?"

The answer was ready at my amazed lips, but I stopped it, for now at
last I began to see. I began to see how, without that peculiar intent
look with which the Spanish Woman had handed me the wine-glass, nor the
menacing gesture with which she had thrust it upon me, the episode of
the wine that had seemed to me so threatening became a mere empty
courtesy; and indeed, separated from the sinister appearance of the
moment, not one episode that had taken place in that extraordinary
house which could not be explained away! I knew past any doubting,
that the Spanish Woman had tried to bribe me, had tried to poison me,
and failing that would have detained me by force, if I had not got out
of the window. And, if I should tell him the whole adventure now while
it was so burning fresh in my own mind, with all its suggestive
atmosphere, its eloquent details, couldn't I make him see it as I saw
it? No. The Spanish Woman had blown the magic breath of her
plausibility, her ingenuity, upon the poor little substance of my true
story, and had scattered it like ash. It was too much of an
undertaking, even supposing it to be possible, to bring together the
pieces again. And a vaguer but even more insistent voice, prompted,
"Then suppose he does believe me? What will it mean to Johnny
Montgomery?" It seemed to me that I had been enough of a Spartan as
far as that man was considered.

I looked up at father and said, "She frightened me--the Spanish Woman
frightened me, and so I ran away."

How readily he took this up, showed me it was the explanation he
expected. "Yes, I know. It would be quite natural," he said
soothingly. "You have been much over-wrought, and this infernal
performance has thrown you into hysterics. But that wall, child--an
awful drop!" He laughed a little, but I could see how much moved he
was. "I hope to see that courage displayed