“Very well.  Take this paper back to your employer.  He must be aware that his only chance of payment is by suppressing it.  If he will do that, in two days he shall hear from us, and we will make arrangements about paying the debt.”

Hilary said this, to her sisters’ utter astonishment; so utter that they let her say it, and let the detective go away with a civil “Good morning,” before they could interfere or contradict by a word.

“Paying the debt!  Hilary, what have you promised?  It is an impossibility.”

“Like the Frenchman’s answer to his mistress—­’Madame, if it had been possible it would have been done already; if it is impossible, it shall be done.’  It shall, I say.”

“I wonder you can jest about our misfortunes,” said Selina, in her most querulous voice.

“I’m not jesting.  But where is the use of sitting down to moan!  I mean what I say.  The thing must be done.”

Her eyes glittered—­her small, red lips were set tightly together.

“If it is not done, sisters—­if his public disgrace is not prevented, don’t you see the result?  Not as regards your marriage, Selina—­the man must be a coward who would refuse to marry a woman he cared for, even though her nearest kinsman had been hanged at the Old Bailey—­but Ascott himself.  The boy is not a bad boy, though he has done wickedly; but there is a difference between a wicked act and a wicked nature.  I mean to save him if I can.”

“How?”

“By saving his good name; by paying the debt.”

“And where on earth shall you get the money?”

“I will go to Miss Balquidder and—­”

“Borrow it?”

“No, never!  I would as soon think of stealing it.”

Then controlling herself, Hilary explained that she meant to ask Miss Balquidder to arrange for her with the creditor to pay the eighty pounds by certain weekly or monthly installments, to be deducted from her salary at Kensington.

“It is not a very great favor to ask of her:  merely that she should say, ’This young woman is employed by me:  I believe her to be honest, respectable, and so forth; also, that when she makes a promise to pay, she will to the best of her power perform it.’  A character which is at present rather a novelty in the Leaf family.”

“Hilary!”

“I am growing bitter, Johanna; I know I am.  Why should we suffer so much!  Why should we be always dragged down—­down—­in this way?  Why should we never have had any one to cherish and take care of us, like other women!  Why—­”

Miss Leaf laid her finger on her child’s lips—­

“Because it is the will of God.”

Hilary flung herself on her dear old sister’s neck and burst into tears.