But Balcome understood. He advanced upon Tottie, shaking a fist. "You mean blackmail!"
"Now go slow on that!" counseled Tottie, dangerously. "I aim to keep a respectable house."
"And I'm sure you do," returned Sue, mollifyingly.
It warmed Tottie into a confidence. "Dearie," she began, "I room the swellest people in the whole perfession. That's why I'm so mad. Here I took in that Clare Crosby. And what did she do to me?—'Aunt Clare!' Think of me swallerin' such stuff! Well, you bet I'm goin' to let Felix Hull know all there is to know, and—the kid is big enough to understand."
Now Sue put out a quick hand. "Ah, but you haven't the heart to hurt a child!"
"Haven't I! You just wait till I have my talk with her 'Aunt Clare'!"
"We haven't been able to locate her."
Tottie's face fell. "No? Then I know a way to git even, and to git my pay. There's the newspapers—y' think they won't grab at this?" She jerked her red head toward the wedding-bell. "Just a 'phone, 'Long lost wife is found, or how a singer broke up a weddin'.'"
"Oh, no!" Hattie raised a frightened face to that upper window of the study.
"By Heaven!" stormed Balcome, stamping the grass.