ate? There is something I must make known
to you, and I cannot write it.' After a day's interval came the reply,
which was still briefer. Miss Nunn would be at home at half-past eight
this or the next evening.

Monica's announcement that she must go out alone after nightfall
alarmed her sisters. When told that her visit was to Rhoda Nunn they
were somewhat relieved, but Alice begged to be permitted to accompany
her.

'It will be lost trouble,' Monica declared. 'More likely than not there
is a spy waiting to follow me wherever I go. Your assurance that I
really went to Miss Barfoot's won't be needed.'

When the others still opposed her purpose she passed from irony into
anger.

'Have you undertaken to save him the expense of private detectives?
Have you promised never to let me go out of your sight?'

'Certainly I have not,' said Alice.

'Nor I, dear,' protested Virginia. 'He has never asked anything of the
kind.'

'Then you may be sure that the spies are still watching me. Let them
have something to do, poor creatures. I shall go alone, so you needn't
say any more.'

She took train to York Road Station, and thence, as the night was fine,
walked to Chelsea. This semblance of freedom, together with the sense
of having taken a courageous resolve, raised her spirits. She hoped
that a detective might be tracking her; the futility of such measures
afforded her a contemptuous satisfaction. Not to arrive before the
appointed hour she loitered on Chelsea Embankment, and it gave her
pleasure to reflect that in doing this she was outraging the
proprieties. Her mind was in a strange tumult of rebellious and
distrustful thought. She had determined on making a confession to
Rhoda; but would she benefit by it? Was Rhoda generous enough to
appreciate her motives? It did not matter much. She would have
discharged a duty at the expense of such shame, and this fact alone
might strengthen her to face the miseries beyond.

As she stood at Miss Barfoot's door he heart quailed. To the servant
who opened she could only speak Miss Nunn's name; fortunately
instructions had been given, and she was straightway led to the
library. Here she waited for nearly five minutes. Was Rhoda doing this
on purpose? Her face, when at length she entered, made it seem
probable', a cold dignity, only not offensive haughtiness, appeared in
her bearing. She did not offer to shake hands, and used no form of
civility beyond requesting her visitor to be se