"What about her?" grunted Mr. Trupp.
"Nothing," said the lady. She added after a pause with apparent irrelevance—"Did she like you?"
"I don't know," replied Mr. Trupp shortly. "All I know is that girl ought never to have been on the Third Floor. I told Madame as much."
The next time Mrs. Lewknor came to call, Mrs. Trupp told her the whole story, as Ernie had told it her; but, like him, concealing the woman's name.
Her suppressed indignation made her almost terrible.
Mrs. Lewknor listened doggedly, looking at her toes.
She had her own views about Captain Royal, but he was in the Regiment, and the Regiment was her god, to whom she owed unquestioning allegiance.
"There's no reason to suppose it was more than a stupid flirtation," she said lamely.
"It was a crime on his part!" cried Mrs. Trupp with a vehemence that astounded her visitor. "A man in his position, and a girl in hers!"
That evening Mrs. Lewknor rehearsed the tale to her husband.