I imagine you will go quietly.'
'You are a pretty clever girl, Miss Longworth. I wish I liked you, but I
don't, so we won't waste valuable time deploring that fact. Have you no
curiosity to hear what I was going to tell you?'
'Not the slightest; but there is one thing I should like to know.'
'Oh, is there? Well, that's human, at any rate. What do you wish to
know?'
'You came here well recommended. How did you know I wanted a housemaid,
and were your testimonials----'
Edith paused for a word, which Jennie promptly supplied.
'Forged? Oh dear no! There is no necessity for doing anything criminal in
this country, if you have the money. I didn't forge them--I bought them.
Didn't you write to any of the good ladies who stood sponsor for me?'
'Yes, and received most flattering accounts of you.'
'Certainly. That was part of the contract. Oh, you can do anything with
money in London; it is a most delightful town. Then, as for knowing
there was a vacancy, that also was money. I bribed the other housemaid
to leave.'
'I see. And what object had you in all this?'
Jennie Brewster laughed--the same silvery laugh that had charmed William
Longworth an hour or two before, a laugh that sometimes haunted
Wentworth's memory in the City. She left her sentinel-like position at
the door and threw herself into a chair.
'Miss Longworth,' she said, 'you are not consistent. You first pretend
that you have no curiosity to hear what I have to say, then you ask me
exactly what I was going to tell you.
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