"That I can answer for!"
"But I never told you all that? I never traded on my relatives or even spoke of them?"
"I scarcely need to answer that question. Your exordium is striking, but don't keep me in suspense longer than you can help."
Mona did not join in his smile.
"All that," she said with a great effort, "is true; and it is equally true that at the present moment I am living with a cousin who keeps a small shop at Borrowness. I have been asked to sell at this bazaar simply because—c'est mon mètier, à moi. I ought to do it well. Now you know why I did not wish to be introduced to Lady Kirkhope."
It was a full minute before the Sahib spoke, and then his answer was characteristic.
"What on earth," he asked, "do you do it for?"
Mona was herself again in a moment.
"Why do I do it?" she said proudly. "Why should I not do it? My cousin has as much claim on me as the Munros have, and she needs me a great deal more. If I must stand or fall by my relatives, I choose to fall with Rachel Simpson rather than to stand with Lady Munro."
She rose to go, but he caught her hand.