Jane flashed around at her passionately, aroused at last, as Nellie Pennington intended that she should be.
“Oh, why couldn’t he have explained?”
“Explain! At the expense of another girl? Phil is a gentleman.”
Mrs. Pennington had had that reply ready. She had considered it carefully for some days.
Jane paused, and her eyes, scarcely credulous, sought the face of her visitor. Nellie Pennington met her look eagerly.
“Nina Jaffray’s,” she went on. “Could Phil tell why it happened? Obviously not.”
“But he kissed her——”
Mrs. Pennington shrugged her pretty shoulders.
“As to that, Nina, of course, had reasons of her own.”
“Nina—Miss Jaffray—reasons?”