Anthony West alone made any effort to sustain the conversation, but then he was the only person present to whom the incident appeared ordinary, and he, too, soon fell silent at the sight of the girl’s pallor.
At last the host said gently: “Hadn’t you better open it, Miss Carstairs? It may be nothing so very serious after all.”
Kitty seemed to nerve herself; she even smiled faintly—as she tore away the flap. She took out a piece of ruled paper folded once—a page torn from a note-book—opened it, and forced herself to read the two lines scrawled upon it in pencil.
Then the paper fell from her fingers, and with a little cry of pain she put up her hands and hid her face.
CHAPTER XVII
Hilda was the first to make a movement. She rose and passed quickly round the table to the apparently stricken girl.
“Kitty,” she said quietly, “remember you are among friends here—friends, who will not permit any person or thing to harm you.” She laid a reassuring hand on the girl’s shoulder.
The host also rose, signing to Colin and West to follow him from the room. But just then Kitty let her hands fall from her face. No longer was it pale, for the shock of fear was past, and her cheeks glowed with honest indignation.
“Mr. Risk, please don’t go away,” she said a little unsteadily. “I don’t wish any one to go away. I’m so sorry to upset everything like this—”
“Don’t worry about that,” Risk said gently. “As my sister has just remarked, we are your friends, and we are all ready and anxious to serve you. You really want us to remain?”