Anita made no answer, but taking the can and the towel she opened the door of dispute, and, stooping an instant on the threshold to lift some small object from the floor, went out of the room. We heard her set down her load on the landing, and the rattle of the sash as she threw up the window, paused, and shut it again. She came back. A fresh inflow of acrid vapour preceded her and set us coughing. It was the stooping, I suppose, that had reddened her cheeks, for she was flushed when she came back to us. It was the only time that I ever saw my cousin with a colour. She spoke to us, a little gaspingly, as if the fog had caught her too by the throat— “Jenny’s quite right. One can’t see an inch in front of one. No—not a cab in hearing. You’ll have to resign yourselves to staying on indefinitely. What? oh, what nonsense, Kent! As if I’d let you go in that state! Besides, there’s Jasper’s poem. Are you going away without hearing it?” The soft monologue continued as she shepherded them to the fire. “That’s always the way—one talks—one gets no work done. Get under the light, Jasper! Beryl, help me to move the table. Oh yes, Jasper, I forgot to tell you, I met Roy Huth the other day and he had just read——” I heard a movement behind me. I turned. Kent had half risen. He spoke— “Sit down. Sit down here.” He touched the cushion beside him. I shook my head. “Not yet. My cousin——” “Ah——” We were silent. I watched Anita. She stood a few moments in unsmiling superintendence, while the women settled themselves and Mr. Flood sorted his papers and cleared his throat. Then, as I had known she would do, she returned soft-footed to her purpose. At the same moment I left Kent Rehan’s side. When she reached the archway between the two rooms, I was there. “And now——” she confronted me—“what happened?” “I told you.” She smiled. “Did you? I have forgotten. Tell me again.” “Anita—he slipped. He fell. He was shutting the door.” “Did he replace this?” She opened her little hand. The wedge of paper that I had twisted lay on her palm. “It was shut in the door when I opened it just now.” She waited a moment. Then, with a certain triumph—“Well?” I said nothing. What was there to say? She tossed it from her. “Don’t be silly, Jenny! What was it? _Who_ was it?” Her eyes were horribly intelligent. “He slipped. He fell. He was shutting the door.” I felt I could go on saying that for ever and ever. The red patches in her cheeks deepened. She spoke past me, rudely, furiously— “I intend to know. I’ve a perfect right——Kent, I intend to know.” I put out my arms carelessly, though my heart was thudding, and rested them against the doorposts. “He’s shaken—a heavy man like that. Better leave him alone.” “I intend to know,” she insisted. And then—“Jenny! _Jenny!_ Let me pass.” “No!” I said.