Cecily was smoking. She broke off the ash of her cigarette against the window-sill before she replied.

“Yes,” she said. “I was in hell then.”

“And now?”

“Now I’m out of it.”

Rose paused a moment. There was no mistaking the quiet thankfulness of the tone.

“And Robert?” she ventured.

“I know nothing about Robert—or rather, to be strictly truthful, I didn’t till last night.” She laughed a little. “And then I made a discovery.”

“Yes?”

“I find that Robert is, or pretends to be, jealous of Dick Mayne.”

Almost imperceptibly, Rose started.