"Where did she get the money from?" he asked, he was quite pale, and his grey eyes glittered like newly fractured steel.
She looked at him aghast, frightened; she put an imploring hand on his arm. "The girl's honest. I know she is. I'm sure of it; she was saving. I know she was saving. Perhaps Lady Cleeve——"
"Perhaps Charlie——"
"No, no! I know she wouldn't take anything from him, because—because that was why she left."
Carstair's face lightened. "Will you give me her address?" he asked.
"She's gone down to her people again, she came to me yesterday. They're encamped down at the old place near Southville; it suits her father down there, he's getting old and Scotland was too cold for him."
The words brought back a luminous vision to Carstairs; his eyes took on a far-away look. "My word! she was full of pluck," he said, aloud, but really to himself.
Mrs Darwen smiled with great pleasure. "If—when you've married her, you'll be friends with Charlie again——?"
He came to earth suddenly and considered. "We shall be friends," he said, "from now onwards, but I'm afraid we can never again be chums. I'll call and see him before I go to the station."
"Thank you," she said. "Thank you, I'm so glad."