But Jaquelina did not look elated at their words. A shadow seemed to fall over the brightness of the arch, brunette face. She glanced at Ronald Valchester shyly. His face was perfectly non-committal.
"I do not know whether to be ashamed or proud," she said, frankly. "Gerald Huntington seemed to think I had taken an unfair advantage of him. But to tell the truth, I have brooded so much and so ardently over his capture that I was wild with delight at the idea of its possibility. I forgot gratitude and everything else in the moment when I frantically clutched him—forgot everything but the offered reward."
"I did not know you were so mercenary, Lina," said Miss Earle, laughing.
Jaquelina looked abashed for a moment, then she answered, without looking up, and almost pleadingly:
"You see, Violet, I needed two hundred dollars so very, very much."
"For what?" said careless, thoughtless Walter. "To buy a silk dress, or a watch, or a pair of diamond earrings?"
"Neither," she answered, half vexed, half smiling. "I wanted it to buy an education."
Walter and Violet laughed. Valchester looked surprised a moment, then smiled a smile of sweet approval.
"I thought you were—educated," said Walter.
She was about to reply when Mrs. Meredith's shrill, peculiar call was heard from the house: