The ladies rose, and Myra and Sheila, pleading fatigue, went to their rooms—or rather to Myra's—leaving Mrs. and Miss Trappème and Mrs. Wooler to, as Sheila said, “Tear me to pieces. But I could not let that woman insult me without retaliating.”
“Of course you did right. She's an odious creature.”
Grainger returned alone about eleven o'clock. He tapped at Myra's door, and asked her if she was asleep.
“No. Miss Carolan is here; we've been having a lovely talk.”
“Well, go to bed, and have a lovely sleep. I want to see you both, especially Miss Carolan, very early in the morning. We can all go out on the beach before breakfast.”
“Very well, Ted. Has Mr. Mallard come in?”
“No. He will not be here for another half-hour or more. Good-night.”
Mrs. Trappème had heard his voice, and quietly opened the door of her own sitting-room, where she and Juliette (Mrs. Wooler had gone) had been discussing Sheila's delinquencies.
“Well!” gasped the mother to her daughter, as she softly closed the door again. “What on earth is going on, I should like to know! Did you hear that—'I want to see you both very early, especially Miss Garolan'? What is there going on? I must go and see Mrs. Wooler in the morning and tell her. And on the beach too! Why can't they be more open?”
Master Mordaunt, who was in the corner devouring some jelly and pastry given to him by his fond mother, looked up and said, with distended cheeks—