She looked up at Geraldine with a sudden fantastic hope that she would see her laughing too; but the face presented to her was hostile and heavy. At sight of it she felt the laughter begin to shake her terrifyingly; and checked it with a gasp. Geraldine said: ‘I suppose you will deny having anything to do with this?’ ‘Oh, deny it--of course I do,’ said Judith with weary contempt. ‘Deny having insinuated--suggested----’ she began loudly. ‘I have never bothered to mention your name to anyone. Why should I? It’s nothing to do with me.’ ‘No,’ she said, her face and voice rousing a little from their heavy deliberate monotony. ‘It’s nothing to do with you.’ She thought a moment and added slowly: ‘Then there’s some misunderstanding.’ ‘Yes, some misunderstanding. Why go on treating it as if it were important?’ After a silence she said: ‘Anything, however slight, that comes between me and Jennifer is important.’ Judith felt herself start to tremble again. Those slow words rang a doom for her; and her spurious advantage was at an end. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said uncertainly, ‘if I have come between you and Jennifer.’ ‘Not _you_,’ she said. (Yes, she was a stupid or a cruel woman.) ‘But I know what people’s mischievous tongues can do, and I wanted to get to the bottom of it before I go away. Just to assure myself that I’m not leaving her to face anything--unpleasant or distressing.’ ‘Ah, so you realize how easily she’s influenced.’ That was it then: the woman was afraid. She had given herself away at last: she knew the terrible insecurity of loving Jennifer. Judith felt a quiver of new emotion dart through her: it seemed like a faint pity. ‘I don’t want her bothered,’ said Geraldine aggressively. ‘I loathe this interfering.’ ‘You don’t quite understand,’ said Judith in a voice of calm explanation, ‘how much Jennifer means to some people--a lot of people here. They love her. Naturally they resent it a little when somebody else comes in and claims all her attention. They miss her. Isn’t it natural? And then you see, since you’ve been here I believe she’s been getting into awful trouble for neglecting her work. I heard one of them say so a day or two ago--and another one said it was time someone spoke to her or she’d be sent down. So I daresay that’s what happened: somebody tried to give her a sort of warning. Of course it was silly: but then, as you say, girls are silly. It was meant kindly.’ She paused, feeling a kind of faintness, took a deep sighing breath and continued: ‘If my name was brought into it, it was because I have had--I think--a certain amount of influence with Jennifer. She and I were a good deal together at one time. But lately I have been working very hard. They have no business at all....’ She felt her voice dwindling and stopped, trembling now uncontrollably.