Jane ran straight up to her room when they got back, but she was no sooner there than it came into her mind to wonder whether she had put away the files which she had been working on just before she went into the garden. Think as she would, she could not be sure.  
She ran down again and went quickly along the corridor to the library. The door was unlatched. She touched the handle, pushed it a little, and stood hesitating. Lady Heritage was speaking.
 
“It’s a satisfaction to know just where one is. Sometimes I’ve been convinced she was a fool, and then again ... well, I’ve wondered. I wondered this afternoon in the garden. That man on the headland gives one to think furiously. Who on earth could it have been?”
 
“I ... don’t ... know.”
 
“But I don’t believe she saw him. I don’t believe she saw anything or knew why she was frightened. She just got a start ... a shock—began to run without knowing why, and ran herself into a blind panic. She looked quite when I was questioning her.”
 
“Oh,” thought Jane. “It’s horrible to listen at doors, but what am I to do?”
 
What she did was to go on listening. She heard Lady Heritage’s rare laugh.
 
“Then this afternoon—my dear Jeffrey, it would have convinced you or any one. The friend—this Daphne Todhunter—well, only a fool could have made a friend of her, and, as I told you, even she had the lowest opinion of her adored Renata’s brains.”
 
“I don’t know,” said Ember again. “You say she’s a fool, I say she’s a fool, her friend says she’s a fool, but something, some instinct in me protests.”
 
“Womanly intuition,” said Lady Heritage, with a mocking note.
 
There was silence; then:
 
“These girls—were they alone together?”
 
“No. They conducted what appeared to be a emotional conversation at the other end of Mrs. Cottingham’s dreadful drawing-room, which always reminds me of a parish sale.”
 
Ember’s voice sounded suddenly much nearer, as if he had crossed the room.
 
“Emotional? What do you mean?” he said quickly. Lady Heritage laughed again.
 
“Mean?” she said. “Does that sort of thing mean anything?”
 
“What sort of thing? Please, it’s important.”
 
“Oh, hand-holding, and a tearful embrace or two. The usual accompaniments of schoolgirl schwärmerei.”
 
Jane could hear that Ember was moving restlessly. Her own heart was beating. She knew very well that in Ember’s mind there was just one thought—“Suppose she has told Daphne Todhunter.”
 
“Which of them cried?” said Ember sharply.
 
“I think they both did—Miss Todhunter most.”
 
“And you couldn’t hear what they were saying?”
 
“Not a word.”
 
 
“I must know. Will you send for her and find out? It’s of the first importance.”
 
“You think....”
 
“She may have told this girl what we’ve been trying to get out of her. I must know. Look here, I’ll take a book and sit down over there. She won’t notice me. Send for her and begin about other things, then ask her why her friend was so ....”
 
Jane heard Ember move again and knew that this time it was towards the bell. She turned and ran back along the way by which she had come. Five minutes later she was entering the library to find Lady Heritage at her table and Ember at the far end of the room buried in a book.
 
“I want the unanswered-letter file.” Lady Heritage’s voice was very businesslike.
 
Jane brought it over and waited whilst Raymond turned over the letters, frowning.
 
“I don’t see Lady Manning’s letter.”
 
“You answered it yesterday.”
 
“So I did. Miss Molloy—why did your friend cry this afternoon?”
 
“Daphne?”
 
“Yes, Daphne. Why did she cry?”
 
“Oh, she does, you know.”
 
“But I suppose not without some cause.”
 
“She was angry with me,” said Jane very low.
 
“Yes? I noticed that she did not kiss you when you went away.”
 
“No, she’s angry. You see”—Jane hung her head—“you see, she thinks—I’m afraid she thinks that I didn’t treat her brother very well.”
 
“Her brother?”
 
 
“Yes. She wanted me to be engaged to him, but he’s married some one else, so I think it’s rather silly of her to be cross with me, don’t you?”
 
“I really don’t know.”
 
Out of the tail of her eye Jane saw Mr. Ember nod his head just perceptibly. Lady Heritage must have seen it too, for she pushed the letter file over to Jane.
 
“Put this away. No, I don’t want anything more at present.”
 
Tea came in as she .
 
Afterwards in her own room Jane sat down on the broad window with her hands in her lap, looking out over the sea. The lovely day was dr............