Again I felt that unpleasant and unaccountable awkwardness, and sniggered rather stupidly. Jenny relieved the situation by exclaiming suddenly, "I don't hate Worthing any more." "Ah, Worthing!" I ejaculated; and again I was wrung with doubt as to what had happened to him when my escape had become known. Had he first made good his own retreat? Somehow I didn't think so. It wasn't like Worthing to run away. Well, they would have little mercy on him. "He told me, Tommy," Jenny went on with hesitation, and finished, "what you wouldn't tell me." "Ah," I said. Then she suddenly sprang up, her eyes blazing, her fists clenched in the manner I knew well, and said with fierce vigour, "Yes, I know what they did to you. And I've seen too. I hate them. Oh, how I _hate_ them!" "It's their way," I said. "But they won't catch you again, will they, Tommy?" She put her hands on my shoulders and said, "Promise?" as I had heard her say it twice before. I laughed, and answered, "It won't be my fault if they do." "Ah!..." Her hands dropped. "And Worthing came and told you," I said; my thoughts again reverting to my friend with his strange loyalty, sometimes so considerate, sometimes so cruel. Jenny answered, "He just said, 'They lock him up in a dark cell. They give him a crust and water three times a day. And they flog him naked every morning.' That's what he said. And he looked at me, and I could see it." I could hear the words as Worthing would have said them. Just the plain facts of the case, and nothing more. "Yes," I said, musing; then, "Well, it's over, and I shan't go back again. And to-night I'll be off, Jenny." She turned to a drawer and took out a bundle neatly folded and strapped, and said, "Here's your things. There's some food. And here's some money." She gave me a golden guinea. "Jenny!" I exclaimed. "You'll need it," she said simply. "But I'll never spend it," I declared, again under the power of that unnerving emotion. "I shall keep this as long as I live." It was Jenny herself who dashed my ardour. "You'll keep it," she said, "till you're hungry." But I registered a silent vow to keep it for ever in memory of my little playmate. I put it carefully in my inmost pocket.