'Now we can have the truth,' said Trix. She spoke almost like a virago; but when she sat at the table, her chin between her hands, she turned on Tommy such a pitiful, harassed face that he could have cried with her.
In came Peggy; she had been to one or two places since Danes Inn, but the glory and gaiety of her visit there hung about her still. She entered gallantly. Then she saw Tommy—and Tommy only at first.
'Oh!' she exclaimed. 'Are you waiting for me?'
Her joy fled; that was strange, since it was Tommy. But there he sat, and sat frowning. It was the day of reckoning!
'I've—I've been meaning to come and see you,' Peggy went on hastily, 'and—and explain.'
'I must ask you to explain to me first, Peggy.'
This from a most forbidding, majestic Trix, hitherto unperceived. She had summoned her forces again; the pleading pitifulness was gone from her face. Tommy reproached himself for a sneak and a coward, but for the life of him he could not help thinking, 'Now they can fight it out together!'
At first Peggy was relieved; a tête-à-tête was avoided. She did not dream that her secret was found out. Who would have thought of Fricker's taste for a good story or of that last kick of malice in Beaufort Chance?
'Oh, there you are too, Trix! So glad to find you. I've only run in for just a minute to change my frock before I go out to dinner with the——'