Vance halted in front of her. After all, if there was a scene coming—and he saw she was not to be cheated out of it—better have it out here than wait and risk Laura Lou's being drawn in. "What is it you're driving at? I can't answer till I know," he said sullenly.

"Well, answer me this, then. Who's the woman you come here to meet?"

The blood rose to his face. "Nonsense. I told you Mrs. Tarrant came here today. You'd better give me her glove and I'll take it back to her."

Mrs. Tracy paid no attention to this. She hesitated a moment; then she said: "You haven't answered my question yet. It's no good beating round the bush. The neighbours all know about what's been going on here. Laura Lou's had a letter warning her. You say, what am I driving at? Well, I'm here to find out what you propose to do, now we've caught you. That's plain enough, isn't it?" She flung the words out in a kind of shrill monotone, as if she had learned them from someone else and were afraid of not getting them in the right order.

Vance was speechless. His mind had seized on one phrase: "Laura Lou's had a letter," and he turned sick with an unformed apprehension. "What nonsense are you talking? What kind of letter? I've got nothing to hide and nothing to explain. If you have the letter with you, you'd better let me see it, and if I can find the sneak who wrote it I'll go and break his neck."

Mrs. Tracy laughed. "Well, you'll have some trouble doing that, I guess. But the letter isn't here—it's locked up at home. It's done enough harm to my poor child already—"

"Who wrote it?" Vance interrupted.

"It's not signed."

"I thought as much. That kind never is. And you've come here to spy on me on the strength of a rag of paper with God knows what anonymous slander on it?" He took his hat up again, and as he did so, his eye lit on the keys which Halo, in leaving, had laid beside him. They were no good to him now; he would never use them again, never come back here without her. He would take them back to Eaglewood this very night, with the glove… .

He put them in his pocket and turned again to his mother-in-law. "I come here to work, not to meet women." This sounded impressive, and in a way was true—yet he didn't care for the ring of it. He cleared his throat, and began again: "If you'll give me Mrs. Tarrant's glove I'll send it back."

For all answer Mrs. Tracy opened her handbag (it was the very one the bridal couple had bought for her on their return to Paul's Landing), and put the glove in it, snapping shut the imitation ivory clasp.