“You must have been dreaming, Eileen.”
“Well, it doesn’t matter,” said Eileen, “I’ll go on with the story. I went up to my room, blew out my candle, switched on my light, and crept into bed. I didn’t sleep for quite a long time. I was rather shaken up, you know, between the storm and the things that had happened. But I dropped off at last, and just wakened in time to catch the first train.”
She looked round the circle till her eye fell on Eric.
“You remember we went up to town together?”
Eric nodded, but said nothing. Eileen took up the thread again.
“In town, I went straight to my bank and paid in Mrs. Brent’s cheque. After that I did some shopping. Then I suddenly remembered something. I never wear jewellery, but I have some things. It struck me that I might raise something on them and so be able to repay Mrs. Brent part of her cheque at once. It would be a kind of relief to my mind. She’d know I was taking things seriously. So I went back to my bank, where I kept them; took them out; went to Starbecks with them. I’ve dealt with Starbecks for years. They know me quite well, and they made no difficulty about it. I didn’t get enough to repay Mrs. Brent entirely, but I felt it was always something done. As I was coming out of Starbecks’ door I met Mr. Westenhanger, and we had just time to get to the station and catch the train.”
Mrs. Brent made a gesture to stop the girl at this point.
“I think that covers the whole question,” she said. “Now I’ve just a word or two to say. If I had imagined what was going to happen, of course I’d never have asked Miss Cressage to give me that promise. But I hardly suppose that any sane person could have foreseen what was coming. It passes all reasonable bounds. I’ve nothing to say about Miss Cressage’s views on the matter. Apparently she believed in keeping private affairs confidential even under very great strain. She’d given her promise, and she kept it.”
“What I felt,” explained Eileen, “was that I’d given you two promises together. If I broke one of them straight away, what reliance could you have placed on my word in the second affair? I had to keep both. And, of course, I had only to wait for you to come back. Then you’d let me off my promise, and I could explain everything. It only meant waiting, I thought. But I hadn’t quite counted on the construction that would be put on things.”
Her eyes flashed indignantly as she turned to Freddie Stickney.