"The key is not here," answered Gertie.
"It must be there. Why is the door locked?"
"How should I know?" retorted the girl sharply. "You don't suppose I locked it, do you?" She heard Lady Douglass call for the useful Rutley; and when the butler came, there was a consultation outside. The door creaked, the lock gave way; Rutley, falling in with the door, just escaped collision with the perturbed girl. He was told to go.
"What does this mean?" demanded Lady Douglass. "Why are you in the billiard-room alone, Miss Higham?"
"I'm not alone. Your brother is here."
"That scarcely improves the look of affairs.—Jim, where are you?"
The gentleman, half emerging, made a mumbled, indistinct request for matches. Gertie, walking to the end of the room, found a box.
"There's your set of teeth," she pointed out, "just by the corner leg. It half frightened me when I saw I'd knocked the whole lot out."
"This is a serious matter," said Lady Douglass judicially. "The great thing will be to keep it from the knowledge of Henry."
"I'm not ashamed of my part in it!" She turned indignantly upon the red-faced man; his mouth was again furnished with the productions of the dentist, but he scowled in an alarming way. "What did you mean by it? Was this a dodge of yours, or of hers?"