the approach to the side door.

"Are you going to tell me?"

"Please, Mrs. Standish, I'd rather not."

"Think again, my girl, and don't forget the circumstances under which
I was persuaded, against my better judgment, to introduce you here."

"What do you mean?"

"Have you forgotten you were caught in the act of burglarising my
house--that I first saw you wearing clothes stolen from me? You told a
story, but how do I know it was true? You may well have been an
accomplice of the ruffian who nearly killed my brother."

"That's hardly likely, is it?"

"How am I to judge? You may have quarrelled and turned on him in
revenge. Judged by your conduct here, I'm sure you're capable of
anything. Or you may have thought you saw a way to win greater profit
by aiding my brother."

"That's all nonsense," Sally retorted hotly, "and you know it."

If dismissal from Gosnold House were inevitable, then there was no
reason why she should not call her soul her own.

A pause was filled by the dramatic effect of Mrs. Standish nobly
holding her temper in leash.

"When are you going to answer my question?"

Sally was dumb.

"Was it--that man you went out there to meet--"

"I didn't go to meet anybody. It was an accident."

"So _you_ say. Was it some one of the guests here?"

Silence was all the answer.

"If you persist in your present attitude, remembering your dubious
history, I have every right to take it for granted you went to meet an
accomplice in crime--"

"Oh, rot!" Sally interjected impatiently.

And then, encouraged by consciousness of her audacity, she let her
temper run away with her for an instant.

"All that's no good," she declared forcibly, "and you know it. If you
mean to speak to Mrs. Gosnold about me in the morning, and have me
sent away merely because I've had an unpleasant experience and refuse
to discuss it with you--when it's none of your affair--why, I can't
stop you. But I'm not a child, to be bullied and browbeaten, and I'm
certainly not going to humour your curiosity about my private
business. And that's flat. Now run and tell, if you really must--but
you won't."

"Oh-indeed?" Mrs. Standish rose with vast dignity. "And why won't I,
if you please?"

"Because you won't dare risk that insurance money, for one thing--"

"So you think you can blackmail--"

"Call it anything you like," Sally flashed defiantly. "Only bear in
mind, I'm not going to submit tamely and be sent away in disgrace,
l