“I’d see myself dead rather!”
The absurdity of the phrase did not detract from its effectiveness.
“Ah!” cried Selina. “Thank you! That’s all I wanted to know.”
She wrung the hands she had caught, whisked her veil over her flushed countenance and turned to leave. On the threshold of the shop she paused and flung back a quick reassurance.
“Don’t be afraid. I’ll never betray you!” which Miss Polly Popple, overhearing, promptly carried to the awestruck ears of Miss Clara Smithson.
“There’s a low-class girl just been in the showroom blackmailing Miss Pounce and gone off Heaving knows with how much hushmoney! ‘I won’t betray you,’ says she. And Miss Pounce looking after her, that distraught; you’d think she’d seen a ghost.”
“Ah! my dear,” said Miss Smithson. “Retribution is gathering over that abandoned creature’s head.”
CHAPTER VII
In which is Manifest the Hand of the Sainted Julia.
“Oh, my Lady Kilcroney, I haven’t a moment! The most dreadful thing has happened!”