"Ah, I wanted you to ask me that! She failed--because Miss Morrison was a friend of Miss Polehampton's, and she had heard some garbled and distorted account of Miss Colwyn's dismissal from that school." Sir Philip did not look at her as he spoke: he fancied that she would be at once struck with horror and even with shame, and he preferred to avert his eyes during the moment's silence that followed upon his account of Janetta's failure to get work. But, when Margaret spoke, a very slight tone of vexation was the only discoverable trace of any such emotion. "Why did not Janetta explain?" Sir Philip's lips moved, but he said nothing. "That affair cannot be the reason why she has obtained so little work, of course?" "I am afraid that to some extent it is." "Janetta could so easily have explained it!" "May I ask how she could explain it? Write a letter to the local paper, or pay a series of calls to declare that she had not been to blame? Do you think that any one would have believed her? Besides--you call her your friend: could she exculpate herself without blaming you; and do you think that she would do that?" "Without blaming _me_?" repeated Margaret. She rose to her full height, letting the fan fall between her hands, and stood silently confronting him. "But," she said, slowly--"I--I was not to blame." Sir Philip bowed. "You think that I was to blame?" "I think that you acted on impulse, without much consideration for Miss Colwyn's future. I think that you have done her an injury--which I am sure you will be only too willing to repair." He began rather sternly, he ended almost tenderly--moved as he could not fail to be by the soft reproach of Margaret's eyes. "I cannot see that I have done her any injury at all; and I really do not know how I can repair it," said the girl, with a cold stateliness which ought to have warned Sir Philip that he was in danger of offending. But Philip was rash and warm-hearted, and he had taken up Janetta's cause. "Your best way of repairing it," he said, earnestly, "would be to call on Miss Morrison yourself and explain the matter to her, as Miss Colwyn cannot possibly do--unless she is a very different person from the one I take her for. And if that did not avail, go to Miss Polehampton and persuade her to write a letter----" He stopped somewhat abruptly. The look of profound astonishment on Margaret's face recalled him to a sense of limitations. "Margaret!" he said, pleadingly, "won't you be generous? You can afford to do this thing for your friend!" "Go to Miss Morrison and explain! _Persuade_ Miss Polehampton!--after the way she treated us! But really it is too ridiculous, Sir Philip. You do not know my friend, Miss Colwyn. She would be the last person to wish me to humiliate myself to Miss Polehampton!"