quiet," she laughed, shining in on him an instant from the
threshold.

She turned back feeling weak with shame. Ellie's letter lay on
the floor: reluctantly she stooped to pick it up, and one by
one the expected phrases sprang out at her.

"One good turn deserves another .... Of course you and Nick are
welcome to stay all summer .... There won't be a particle of
expense for you--the servants have orders .... If you'll just
be an angel and post these letters yourself .... It's been my
only chance for such an age; when we meet I'll explain
everything. And in a month at latest I'll be back to fetch
Clarissa ...."

Susy lifted the letter to the lamp to be sure she had read
aright. To fetch Clarissa! Then Ellie's child was here? Here,
under the roof with them, left to their care? She read on,
raging. "She's so delighted, poor darling, to know you're
coming. I've had to sack her beastly governess for
impertinence, and if it weren't for you she'd be all alone with
a lot of servants I don't much trust. So for pity's sake be
good to my child, and forgive me for leaving her. She thinks
I've gone to take a cure; and she knows she's not to tell her
Daddy that I'm away, because it would only worry him if he
thought I was ill. She's perfectly to be trusted; you'll see
what a clever angel she is ...." And then, at the bottom of the
page, in a last slanting postscript: "Susy darling, if you've
ever owed me anything in the way of kindness, you won't, on your
sacred honour, say a word of this to any one, even to Nick. And