"Ha-ha!" With a nod and a saucy backward grin, Tottie went out.
For a moment neither mother nor daughter spoke. Sue waited, trying to puzzle out the significance of what she had caught; and scarcely daring to charge an indiscretion. Mrs. Milo waited, forcing Sue to speak first, and thus betray how much she had heard.
"I thought you'd gone," ventured Sue.
"Gone, darling? Without you?"
"That woman;"—Sue came closer—"I hope you were very careful."
"Why, I was!"—this not without the note of injured innocence always so effective.
But Sue was not to be blocked so easily. "You're going to pay her for what?"
"Pay?"
"What was she saying?"
Now Mrs. Milo realized that she had been heard: that she must save herself from a mortifying situation by some other method than simple justification. She took refuge in tears. "I can see that you're trying to blame me for something!" she complained, and sank, weeping, to the settee.