And the door closed behind her. I stood blinking after her a moment; then I fixed my attention gloomily upon the cellarette. Poor little girl and her foolish—but adorably foolish—college bravado! Sorrowfully I locked the cellarette and dropped the key in my pocket.
Then I locked the outer doors of the hall and apartment, leaving the keys unmolested on the inside. On the whole I decided I would not have up the janitor's gossipy wife.
Next I sought Jenkins at the back.
"We will lock up back here, Jenkins, and go over to my rooms at the club for the night."
Jenkins stared fixedly over my head. "Certainly, sir."
"And Jenkins—h'm!" I crumpled a bill into his mechanical palm. "You will never allude to having seen that sweet—um—you understand, Jenkins? Never seem to remember, even to me, that you ever saw any one up here to-night."
"Certainly not, sir," indignantly. "I wouldn't, anyhow."
Yet his eyes, rolling back from the ceiling, seemed to hold me oddly for an instant. In them was a touch of sadness.
"But may I speak of that Mr. Billings, sir? You know, if he comes—"
"Jenkins!" sharply.