“I did borrow money,” she said in a voice so faint it seemed to trail after her thought like a thin curl of smoke, “not from Purcell, but from the Treasury, as I supposed. I was in the direst need. None of us had received our salaries for months. I hung out as long as I could, for I was afraid of him. But I was simply driven to him at last. What a horrible net he has built around me! Terry—himself—Adams, Ah! Yes, I did kiss Adams good-by!”
“Were there any witnesses present when he gave you the money?”
Julie shook her head.
“You poor, unsophisticated infant! Don’t you know that it would have been a criminal offense for him to use government funds for his own purposes? You stepped right into his trap. He was waiting for you, the rascal, and knew perfectly well that you wouldn’t know what you were doing.”
“No, clearly, I have not at any time known what I was about!” She crumpled, stunned, into a chair.
Dwight rushed to her. “My God! Is it possible that you’ve been starving yourself with all of us right around to help!”
“I guess I have—but it wasn’t anything compared to this. And who are all of you, who were ready to help—as you say?” the girl cried out in anguished bitterness. “Didn’t you all stand by and listen while that man told his vile lies? You see now why I have no more pupils in the school, why everything’s gone to smash, and I’m hopelessly ruined, as he meant I should be?”
“Be just to us, Julie! We were shocked at your light treatment of Adams.”
“Ah, I was never engaged to Jack Adams. That was a desperate, stupid lie of mine, which I hoped would help him out of the scrape. As for the other men that I thought to be my friends—Oh! this terrible land—where we’re all strangers to one another after all!”
“But this story must be put down. It’s all over the town. You can do that best yourself!”