His eyes rested with a last anxious, pleading look on Naomi's face. He
bowed to us, and melted away into the shadow of the tree. The distant
sound of a door closed softly came to us through the stillness of the
night. John Jago had re-entered the house.

Now that he was out of hearing, Naomi spoke to me very earnestly:

"Don't suppose, sir, I have any secrets with _him_," she said. "I know
no more than you do what he wants with me. I have half a mind not to
keep the appointment when ten o'clock comes. What would you do in my
place?"

"Having made the appointment," I answered, "it seems to be due to
yourself to keep it. If you feel the slightest alarm, I will wait in
another part of the garden, so that I can hear if you call me."

She received my proposal with a saucy toss of the head, and a smile of
pity for my ignorance.

"You are a stranger, Mr. Lefrank, or you would never talk to me in that
way. In America, we don't do the men the honor of letting them alarm
us. In America, the women take care of themselves. He has got my
promise to meet him, as you say; and I must keep my promise. Only
think," she added, speaking more to herself than to me, "of John Jago
finding out Miss Meadowcroft's nasty, sly, underhand ways in the house!
Most men would never have noticed her."

I was completely taken by surprise. Sad and severe Miss Meadowcroft a
listener and a spy! What next at Morwick Farm?