Chapter XI: Act THE THIRD: Where Is the General? (3)

'I'm almost glad he did decline to come back,' I declared; 'it served his mistress right--she didn't deserve anything else!'

'Ah, I didn't want you to say that!' she protested; 'she never meant to be so unkind--it was all for the baby's sake!'

I was distinctly astonished, for all her sympathy in telling the story had seemed to lie in the other direction.

'You don't mean to say,' I cried involuntarily, 'that you can find any excuses for her? I did not expect _you_ would take the baby's part!'

'But I did,' she confessed, with lowered eyes--'I _did_ take the baby's part--it was all my doing that Pepper was sent away--I have been sorry enough for it since!'

It was her own story she had been telling at second-hand after all--and she was not Miss So-and-so! I had entirely forgotten the existence of any other members of the party but our two selves, but at the moment of this discovery--which was doubly painful--I was recalled by a general rustle to the fact that we were at a dinner-party, and that our hostess had just given the signal.

As I rose and drew back my chair to allow my neighbour to pass, she raised her eyes for a moment and said almost meekly:

'I _was_ the baby, you see!'

_MARJORY_