She was running a terrible risk of detection but nothing but bravado could save her now.
She dimmed the light, and returned to the other room, demanding:
"Who is there? What do you want?"
Several angry voices vociferated:
"Let us in! You are beating Liane!"
At that she snarled in rage and threw wide the door, confronting Mrs. Brinkley and her sister, with the two new boarders.
"You must be crazy!" she exclaimed. "I was pounding a nail into the wall to hang my petticoat on, and Liane is asleep in the bedroom. If you don't believe me, go and look!"
They did not believe her, so they tiptoed to the door and peeped inside, and there, indeed, lay the girl, seeming in the dim half light to be sleeping sweetly and naturally.
"You can wake her if you choose, but she said she was very tired, and hoped I would not disturb her to-night," said artful granny coolly, though in a terrible fright lest she be taken at her word.
They retreated in something like shamefaced confusion, leaving granny mistress of the situation.