“People you don’t know,” the younger answered evasively. “It was while you were away. It wouldn’t have happened if you’d been home. We all dined together at the Claremont and afterwards they simply would play auction. I said no at first but they made me. I got excited and began to lose, and then they said if I kept on the luck would turn, but it didn’t, and I lost a thousand dollars.”
Ethel Cartwright needed no other explanation as a key to Taylor’s manner. It was certain that he knew and would presently force her poor frightened little sister into a confession. It was no time for blaming the child or pointing out morals, but for protecting her.
“Ssh,” she whispered, “Ssh!”
“I didn’t mean to do it,” Amy reiterated. “Believe me, I didn’t.”
“Tell me what happened then?” Ethel asked in a low tone.
“I couldn’t pay, of course, and the other women said they’d have to ask mother or you for the money and if you wouldn’t pay I should have to go to jail. I didn’t know what to do. I nearly went out of my head, I think. At last Philip Sloane offered to lend it me.”
The elder recoiled from her. “That man!” she cried horrified. “Oh, Amy, and how often I have warned you against him!”
“There was nothing else to do,” her sister explained. “You were away and I had no one to go and ask.”
“Stop a minute,” Ethel said. “If you borrowed the money and paid the debts, why did you need to take my diamonds?”
Amy hung her head. “When he lent me the money he said I could pay it back whenever I wanted to, in a hundred years if I liked.”