Kit. And after it's all over, you'll realize that it's the
biggest kind of lark. Think how you are saving the old lady's
feeling! When you are an elderly person yourself, Kit, you will
appreciate what you are doing tonight."

Yes, they said they would stand by me, and that I was a heroine
and the only person there clever enough to act the part, and that
they wouldn't let me stick! I am not bitter now, but that is what
they promised. Oh, I am not defending myself; I suppose I
deserved everything that happened. But they told me that she
would be there only between trains, and that she was deaf, and
that I had an opportunity to save a fellow-being from ruin. So in
the end I capitulated.

When they opened the door into the living room, Max Reed had
arrived and was helping to hide a decanter and glasses, and
somebody said a cab was at the door.

And that was the way it began.



Chapter III. I MIGHT HAVE KNOWN IT

The minute I had consented I regretted it. After all, what were
Jimmy's troubles to me? Why should I help him impose on an
unsuspecting elderly woman? And it was only putting off discovery
anyhow. Sooner or later, she would learn of the divorce,
and--Just at that instant my eyes fell on Mr. Harbison--Tom
Harbison, as Anne called him. He was looking on with an amused,