But Audrey, frightened as she was, miserable as she was, knew better than to think Mr. Diggs would take such a step as that. She threw at the secretary a look of disdain and answered steadily:—
“He can do whatever he likes.”
Then for the first time Diggs spoke. Darting across the room, and planting himself before her, he thrust his hands deeper into the pockets of his lounge coat and said impudently:—
“Come now, what have I done?”
And Audrey, summoning her spirit, replied at once:—
“You have cheated at cards.”
This accusation, evidently unexpected by one at least of her hearers, for a moment struck them both dumb.
It was Mr. Candover who recovered himself the first.
“Cheated at cards!” he repeated incredulously. “Madame, do you know the importance of such an accusation?”
But poor Audrey, now strung up to the sort of reckless defiance which despair and misery sometimes produce even in the feeble, replied boldly:—