"Does it matter?" Sally fenced.
"Certainly. I insist upon knowing. Remember your position here--and mine. I have assumed responsibility for you; but I cannot permit you to make me answerable for the antics of a man-crazy woman. If you can't behave yourself and refrain from annoying my aunt's guests, you must go. I thought you understood that."
"Of course," the girl muttered. "You didn't think I expected anything else, did you?"
"Who was the man you followed out there?"
The calculated offensiveness of this was balanced by its sudden revelation to Sally's mind of the fact that Mrs. Standish didn't know there had been two men. It was, however, true that the window did not command a view of the approach to the side door.
"Are you going to tell me?"
"Please, Mrs. Standish, I'd rather not."
"Think again, my girl, and don't forget the circumstances under which I was persuaded, against my better judgment, to introduce you here."
"What do you mean?"
"Have you forgotten you were caught in the act of burglarising my house--that I first saw you wearing clothes stolen from me? You told a story, but how do I know it was true? You may well have been an accomplice of the ruffian who nearly killed my brother."