"I didn't poke. She asked me! Mother can tell you that she did. I'm going again on Saturday." Jill's wrath gave way to an overwhelming anxiety. "And me? And me? I am sure she asked me too." "No, she didn't. It's a grown-up party. She'll ask you another time with Pam. She said she wanted to know Pam." It was the last straw to be classed with Pam, a child of eight summers! Jill stuttered with mortified rage. "S-neak! Just like you! Mark my word, Elizabeth Trevor, _I'll be even with you about this_!" CHAPTER NINE. A VISIT TO THE VICTIM. During the next week Betty's thoughts were continually winging across the Square to her new friend, Mrs Vanburgh, though her own time was so fully occupied, that, with the exception of a sudden encounter in the street, they did not see anything of each other until the great Saturday arrived. Meantime it rankled in Jill's mind that she had been unfairly treated, and, in consequence, she was constantly endeavouring to hit on some scheme which would at once vindicate her own importance and put Betty's adventure in the shade. General Digby, as a new and striking personality in her small circle of acquaintances, naturally suggested himself as a fitting object for the enterprise, and she lost no time in consulting her ally. "I say, Jack, when you saw the `Victim' home the other night, did you notice the address?" "What do you take me for, silly? I have eyes, haven't I? Of course I noticed it." "You may have eyes, but you certainly haven't a memory. Do you happen to remember where it was?" "No, I don't, but I wrote it down in my pocket-book, so I could soon find out if I wanted to. Why?" "Because I think we ought to call and ask how he is." "Father says he's all right except for his gout." "I know--but it would be polite to call. Mother always does, even when she knows they are better. And as we were the--er--what do you call it?--cause of the accident--" "Innocent?" "No, that's not it! A much finer word--un--un--_unwitting_!--that's it, so it's all the more proper that we should inquire. How far off is it? Could we meet and go together after school this afternoon?" "It's near enough, as far as that goes--one of those swagger flats in Prince's Square. I suppose we could manage all right. Will you tell mother about it?" "Not till we get back. I am sure she would think it very nice and kind of us, but she'd want me to put on best things, and worry about my hair. I wish I'd been born a savage! I do so loathe being bothered about clothes." "Never mind. No one would think to look at you that you ever bothered about them at all," quoth Jack, with somewhat unflattering sympathy. "I'll wait for you at the corner of Prince's Square. I'm not going to meet all those sniggering girls if I know it." So it was arranged, and Jill swelled with importance for the rest of the day, longing for four o'clock to arrive, and set her free from her duties.