the curtains hastily over them.]

HILLCRIST. [Awkward and expectant] Can I do anything for you?

CHLOE. I couldn't bear it he's coming to ask you----

HILLCRIST. Who?

CHLOE. My husband. [She draws in her breath with a long shudder,
then seem to seize her courage in her hands] I've got to be quick.
He keeps on asking--he knows there's something.

HILLCRIST. Make your mind easy. We shan't tell him.

CHLOE. [Appealing] Oh! that's not enough. Can't you tell him
something to put him back to thinking it's all right? I've done him
such a wrong. I didn't realise till after--I thought meeting him
was just a piece of wonderful good luck, after what I'd been
through. I'm not such a bad lot--not really.

[She stops from the over-quivering of her lips. JILL, standing
beside the chair, strokes her shoulder. HILLCRIST stands very
still, painfully biting at a finger.]

You see, my father went bankrupt, and I was in a shop----

HILLCRIST. [Soothingly, and to prevent disclosures] Yes, yes; Yes,
yes!

CHLOE. I never gave a man away or did anything I was ashamed of--at