ndows after nightfall from which the curtains have been
suddenly thrown back. He had seen that look in her eyes at the hunt
when, in disobedience to shouted warnings, she had looked back across
her shoulder challengingly before taking an audacious jump. There was in
her expression the fear of the thing she was about to do and the panic
of determination to get it done. He attempted to turn her aside from the
danger by slipping in quietly, "I don't think I'd discuss the General at
this moment."

"At this moment!" she flashed back with a scared smile. The sound of her
own voice seemed to clap spurs to her excitement. "Why not at this
moment, dear Tabs? Everything comes out sooner or later. If there's
going to be any spreading of gossip, one takes the sting out of it by
being the first to spread it. Besides, you oughtn't to mind. You ought
to feel most frightfully bucked."

"Nevertheless, I don't think I'd say it."

Then he held his breath for, paying no heed to him, she had turned to
Maisie. "You mustn't laugh, but it's too good to keep to oneself.
Before he was a General, what do you think he did for a living? He used
to clean Lord Taborley's boots. You don't believe it, but it's a fact.
Daddy's terribly grim with me over it. Of course it was _infra dig_ to
go footing all over town with your best friend's valet. But how was I to
know that he'd been that? Daddy says I ought to have sensed it, if I'd
had any sort of a social instinct. But here's the funniest thing of all,
the way we made the discovery. I'd invited him to dine at our house on
the very night that Tabs was Daddy's guest. I'll never forget your
faces, Tabs, when Daddy introduced the two of you." She commenced to
pantomime the scene with forced gayety; then she pretended to become
aware for the first time that they weren't joining in her laughter.

"What's wrong? You look as solemn as a funeral. Don't you find it
amusing?"

Porter was leaving the room. Maisie waited till the door had closed.
Then, "You didn't intend it to be amusing. Why on earth did you say all
this before her?"

Under the rebuke Terry's face flushed defiance. She was near to tears,
but she contrived to go on smiling. "When I want all the world to know
anything that's private, I mention it before servants. It always works."

"But----" Maisie was at a loss to find a motive for such indiscretion.
She glanced helplessly at Tabs. "But," she objected, "surely you don't
want all the world to