"A whole sovereign," he said to himself--"a whole sovereign, and I never
had so much as five shillings of my own in the whole course of my life.
Well, she is a little witch. I suppose Dave would beat me black and blue
for doing a thing of this sort. But how could I--how could I withstand
her?"

Supper at the Tennants' generally consisted of cold pudding, cold meat,
bread-and-butter, and a little jam when there happened to be any in the
house. It was not a particularly tempting meal, and those who ate it
required to have good, vigorous appetites. Kathleen, although she had
been brought up in a considerable amount of wasteful splendor, was
indifferent to what she ate. She soon jumped up and walked across the
little passage into the drawing-room. Ben, looking very red and
shamefaced, would not meet her eyes. Ben's face annoyed Kathleen. It did
not occur to her for a minute that he would not be faithful to her, but
she was afraid that others might notice his extraordinary and perturbed
expression. Once, too, he jingled the sovereign in his pocket; she heard
him, and wondered why David did not ask him where he had got the money.
But no remark was made, and the meal came safely to an end. Kathleen
took up the first book she could find and pretended to read.

"I shall feign sleepiness at a quarter to nine," she said to herself,
"and go upstairs. I shall be awfully polite and sweet to dear Alice. She
never comes to bed before ten, so I shall be quite safe getting out of
the house. I can drop from the window, but I should prefer going by the
back door; and I don't think Maria will betray me."

Just then Alice strolled into the room. She looked rather nice; she wore
a very pretty pink muslin blouse, which suited her well. Her hair was
neatly arranged; her face was calm. She stood before Kathleen.