He bowed stiffly, indicating a chair with a gesture. "Will you be seated first, madam?"
His sophomoric dignity drew a faint, ironic smile to her lips. "Thank you," she said calmly, and seated herself on the little horsehair sofa. If there was any uneasiness in the look she sent from one to the other of the young people it was not noticeable. "Hattie came in a little while ago," she said, "scared out of her wits. I suspected that you were up to one of your pranks, Viola. I do wish you would stop frightening the girl."
"Kenneth will tell you what happened," said the girl, hurriedly. "He wants to see you alone. I am going upstairs."
She left the room, closing the door behind her. Neither spoke until they heard her footsteps on the floor overhead.
"Well, what have you been telling her?" asked Rachel, leaning forward, her eyes narrowing.
He drew a chair up close to the sofa and sat down. "Nothing that she should not know," he answered. "I will first tell you what happened a little while ago, and then—the rest of it. There is evil afoot. I have been wrong, I realize, in not warning you and Viola."
She listened intently to the end; not once did she interrupt him, but as he proceeded to unfold the meagre details of the plot as presented to him by Isaac Stain, her brow darkened and her fingers began to work nervously, restlessly in her lap. His account of the frightening of Zachariah and its immediate results took up but little time. He was careful to avoid any mention of that stirring scene at the fence, its effect upon the startled girl, or how near he was to betraying the great secret.
Rachel Gwyn's eyes never left his face during the whole of the unbroken recital. Toward the end he had the disconcerting impression that she was reading his turbulent thoughts, that she was successfully searching his soul.
"That's the story as it came to me," he concluded. "I deserve your condemnation for not preparing Viola against a trick that might have resulted disastrously while we were marking time."
"Why did Isaac Stain go to you instead of coming to me?" was her first question.