Aunt Hester, who had also risen, sank back in her chair, and turned her face away. Really Juley was too⁠—she should not do such things when she⁠—Aunt Hester, was in the room; and, breathless with anticipation, she waited for what Soames would answer.

He had flushed the peculiar flush which always centred between his eyes; lifting his hand, and, as it were, selecting a finger, he bit a nail delicately; then, drawling it out between set lips, he said: “ Mrs. MacAnder is a cat!”

Without waiting for any reply, he left the room.

When he went into Timothy’s he had made up his mind what course to pursue on getting home. He would go up to Irene and say: