’Never mind.  It’ll be over in a day or two, and it’ll be a lesson to you, Clarence, won’t it?’

‘I quite admit that the idea was mine,’ her husband replied, rather irritably.  ’But it wasn’t I who accepted the girl as a suitable person.’

‘And certainly it wasn’t me!’ rejoined Emmeline.  ’You will please to remember that I said again and again—­’

’Oh, hang it, Emmy!  We made a blunder, both of us, and don’t let us make it worse by wrangling about it.  There you are; people of that class bring infection into the house.  If she stayed here a twelvemonth, we should have got to throwing things at each other.’

The answer to Louise’s letter of remonstrance came in the form of Mrs. Higgins herself Shortly before luncheon that lady drove up to “Runnymede” in a cab, and her daughter, who had just returned from a walk, was startled to hear of the arrival.

‘You’ve got to come home with me, Lou,’ Mrs. Higgins began, as she wiped her perspiring face.  ’I’ve promised to have you back by this afternoon.  Dada’s right down angry; you wouldn’t know him.  He blames everything on to you, and you’d better just come home quiet.’

‘I shall do nothing of the kind,’ answered Louise, her temper rising.

Mrs. Higgins glared at her and began to rail; the voice was painfully audible to Emmeline, who just then passed through the hall.  Miss Derrick gave as good as she received; a battle raged for some minutes, differing from many a former conflict only in the moderation of pitch and vocabulary due to their being in a stranger’s house.

‘Then you won’t come?’ cried the mother at length.  ’I’ve had my journey for nothing, have I?  Then just go and fetch Mrs. What’s-her-name.  She must hear what I’ve got to say.’

‘Mrs. Mumford isn’t at home,’ answered Louise, with bold mendacity.  ’And a very good thing too.  I should be sorry for her to see you in the state you’re in.’

’I’m in no more of a state than you are, Louise!  And just you listen to this.  Not one farthing more will you have from ’ome—­not one farthing!  And you may think yourself lucky if you still ’ave a ’ome.  For all I know, you’ll have to earn your own living, and I’d like to hear how you mean to do it.  As soon as I get back I shall write to Mrs. What’s-her-name and tell her that nothing will be paid for you after the week that’s due and the week that’s for notice.  Now just take heed of what you’re doing, Lou.  It may have more serious results than you think for.’

‘I’ve thought all I’m going to think,’ replied the girl.  ’I shall stay here as long as I like, and be indebted neither to you nor to stepfather.’

Mrs. Mumford breathed a sigh of thankfulness that she was not called upon to take part in this scene.  It was bad enough that the servant engaged in laying lunch could hear distinctly Mrs. Higgins’s coarse and violent onslaught.  When the front door at length closed she rejoiced, but with trembling; for the words that fell upon her ear from the hall announced too plainly that Louise was determined to stay.