The Captain had called at the Manor-house once or twice during his stay, and his easy attentions to her Bess had disquieted her for the moment; for she had disliked him from the first. But Bess, sound in her intuitions, as she was strong in her antipathies, had proved well able to care for herself.
"She's a good girl," said Ernie, still rapt in his story. "Too good for this world."
"You won't tell me her name?" asked Mrs. Trupp.
Ernie shook his head doggedly, twisting the ten-pound note between his knees. It was his father's son who refused to speak.
"Of course," she went on slowly, "your friend has not been wise, Ernie. The world would say she'd brought her troubles on her own head."
Ernie, well aware of the truth, looked at the note, and changed the subject clumsily.
"What are I to do with this?" he asked.
Mrs. Trupp had no doubts on that score.
"The proper thing to do is to return it to Captain Royal," she said.
Ernie was quite gentleman enough to understand.