"What do you know about Shakespeare, Jane-Ellen?"
"Moving pictures have been a great education to the lower classes, you know, sir."
He moved toward the stairs, but turned back to say,
"Good-by, Jane-Ellen."
She answered:
"'Think you that we shall ever meet again?'" and then even she seemed to feel that she had committed an imprudence and she dashed away to the kitchen.
Crane ascended the stairs slowly, for he was trying to recall the lines that follow Juliet's pathetic question, when he suddenly became aware of Mrs. Falkener's feet planted firmly on the top step, and then of that lady's whole majestic presence. He pulled himself together with an effort.
"Do you suppose that girl could have dropped that lid on purpose?" he asked, as if this were the question he had been so deeply pondering.
"I feel not the least doubt of it," returned Mrs. Falkener.
He shook his head.