"Well, she won't. I tell you it's all right!"
"No, she won't find out because now I come to think of it you've got to pay it back next week," said Wally triumphantly.
These words, which were spoken in an unguarded tone, reached Mary's ears. At that moment, Janet, taking painstaking aim, miscued, and it became White's turn to play. As he walked over to the table, Mary caught Steel's eye, and realised, with a curious sinking of her spirits, that he also had overheard Wally's last speech. He was standing beside Mary, and asked in an abrupt undertone whether Wally had lent money to White.
"I don't know," Mary replied repressively.
Steel's hard gaze travelled to Ermyntrude's unconscious profile. He muttered: "Exploiting her! By God, I He checked himself, remembering to whom he spoke, and said briefly: "Sorry!"
Mary thought it wisest to disregard his outburst, and began to talk of something else, but she was privately a good deal perturbed by what she had heard, and contrived, soon after the departure of the Whites, to get a word with Wally alone. Knowing that evasive methods would not answer, she asked him bluntly whether he had lent money to White, and refused to be satisfied with his easy assurance that it was quite all right.
Questioned more strictly, Wally said bitterly that things were coming to a pretty pass now that his own ward spied upon him.
"You know I don't spy on you. I couldn't help hearing what you said to Mr. White tonight. You spoke quite loudly. Robert Steel heard you as plainly as I did."
Wally looked a little discomposed at this. "I wish that fellow would stop poking his nose into my business! It's my belief he'd like nothing better than to see me knocked down by a tram, or something."
"Nonsense!" said Mary.