lib little tongue stuck here.

"Well?" said Sophy, as before.

"She's saying---- Oh, she's really a beast, that woman! She's saying
that you've given him drugs ... taught him how to take them."

"_Drugs?_" said Sophy. Her brows knitted together. She was very pale.
"_Drugs?_" she repeated.

"Yes--opium--morphine ... that kind of thing.... I consulted Jack before
telling you." (Jack was Mr. Arundel.) "And he said I _should_ by _all_
means. You aren't vexed with me for telling you, _are_ you?"

Olive's italics were very plaintive.

Sophy was looking down at the tip of her shoe, which she moved slightly
to and fro on the soft carpet. She said in a low voice, very gently:

"No; I thank you."

Then she turned and went to the window, pulling aside the curtains and
looking blindly out into the soft, pale night.

_Drugs!_ She had never thought of that in her inexperience. All
resentment at her mother-in-law's accusation was engulfed in that
appalling revelation.

Behind her back, Mrs. Arundel stole nervous peeps at the little ormolu
clock on the mantelpiece. That new frock had quantities of hooks and
eyes on it. She wished now that she had not sent Marie away, or that she
had waited to tell Sophy until the gown was on. It was unfortunate. One
_couldn't_ go up to a person who was overcome with righteous wrath and
say: "_Would_ you mind, dear, just hooking me up, before you give way
further to your feelings?"

But just here Sophy turned and came towards her.

"We'd better be getting on with your toilette, Olive," she said.

"What a darling you are!" cried Mrs. Arundel, quite melted. "You're so
_unselfish_.... It's perfectly touching."

Sophy couldn't help smiling.

"It isn't unselfishness," she said; "it's the instinct of
self-preservation. I can't give way to decent, moderate little angers."

She was talking to keep Olive from seeing how deep the thing had pierced
her. And she hooked deftly and lightly, with fingers that were icy cold
but nimble. After she had admired her friend and the new gown
sufficiently, she said: "Was there any more? What motive did she say I
had?"

Mrs. Arundel glanced slyly at the clock again. She had still a good
twenty minutes before her guests would arrive.

"Let's sit here cozily by the window--and I'll tell you _everything_!"

The homely yet amorous fragrance from the white carnations in the
window-box flowed gently over them. It drowned out the smell of
soot--the London smell