"Yes—I tried hard to tell you, Jeff——"
"And does Archie really believe this tale himself, or is it just one of his little pleasantries?"
She didn't know.
"Is he at the college this morning?"
"Yes."
"Good. Will you send him down to me if I walk back with you? I think we won't lose any time over this."
"And you'll give him a really severe talking-to?" she asked eagerly.
"I will," I promised. "Come——"
Twenty minutes later I was again in the doorway of the Business College, waiting for Archie to descend.
And as I waited I reflected how well-nigh irrevocably I had tied myself up with Kitty now. I think that up to then she would have stuck to me even had this of Miss Causton been true; but now she would never, never let me go. Perhaps I may here mention the plan I had at first had for getting rid of her when I should require her no longer. I had based that plan on the fascination the "compromising situation" of her favourite novels always had for her. I never knew anyone so self-conscious about her defencelessness, and I had worked it out that I had only to propose my own chamber for an assignation and she would conceive herself to be looking into the bright face of danger indeed. All peril and all romance would lie for her in her setting foot on the lowest of my stairs.... And doubtless one glance at that naked room of mine (I had pawned even my oil-stove) would, I had estimated, drive her away in instant and horrified fright.... I had not been above planning this.