ike a kitchen-maid. I'll go, right enough--you don't need to worry
about that--but I'll go on my own excuse. If you tell on me, I'll tell
on you, and I'll tell everything I know, too."

"And what, please," the woman purred dangerously, "do you think you
know--?"

"What about your signalling that yacht just now?"

It was shot at a venture; she had no real knowledge that the lighted
window had been that of Mrs. Standish's bedroom; but it was just
possible, and she chanced it, and it told, though she was not yet to
know that with any certainty.

"What are you talking about?" Mrs. Standish hesitated with a hand on
the door-knob.

"You know well enough. I saw what I saw. People don't do things like
that unless there's something secret about it, something they don't
want known."

"I think you must be out of your head," the woman responded with
crushing hauteur. "I haven't the slightest notion what you mean, and
you needn't trouble to enlighten me. I don't in the least care. But
you may sleep on this--that your insolence shall be properly rewarded
as soon as I can see my aunt in the morning. Good night."

With a defiant sniff that covered a spirit cringing in consternation,
Sally turned her back and threw herself angrily into a chair. But the
sound that she had expected of the door closing did not come, and
after a minute she looked round to find Mrs. Standish still at pause
upon the threshold.

"Oh," said Sally, with an impertinent assumption of remedying an
oversight, "good night, I'm sure!"

Instead of audible reply, the woman shut the door and turned back to
the middle of the room.

"I don't wish to be unjust," she said quietly.

"I am quick-tempered, just as you are, but I always try to be fair in
the end. Perhaps I was unpleasant and too exacting just now; but, you
must admit, I really know little or nothing about you, and have every
right to watch you closely."

She paused, as if expecting an answer; but before Sally could overcome
her astonishment she resumed in the same level, reasonable tone:

"I was greatly distressed when I came here and found you had gone out
at this hour of the night: certainly, you must allow, a queer
proceeding on the part of a young woman in your position. And
when you come back, after a long talk with a strange man in the
shelter of a hedge, and refuse to give an account of yourself, I
confess you exasperated me. At the same time, accidents do happen; and
it's true you have