"My dear child--my precious child--" said Regina almost breaking down, but recovering herself with a snap as it were. Then she went on in the same fierce tone, "I shall not forget this, Julia, my darling; one can always rely on you in a moment of emergency, Maudie has not half your sound common-sense--she's a feather head compared to you." "Oh, she'll be all right. You tip Harry the wink--" "What!" "Oh! I beg your pardon, mummy, I forgot. Shall I tell Harry to stop Maudie blabbing?" "I wish you would. You might explain to him a little. Now, here we are, here we are, now don't let us speak of it again; it's all much more simple than you children think." Now it happened that on the way down to the theatre, Harry Marksby had given Maudie a hint, or, as Julia would have put it, tipped her the wink, to say nothing whatever about what had occurred. "I don't understand why," she had replied. "Why should daddy be dining with that bold-looking woman when mother thought he was dining with a friend at the Criterion?" "Well, you can't tell. As long as your mother doesn't want it spoken of, it's no business of ours. Now, hold your tongue, Maudie darling; I rely upon you not to say a word, you'll only upset everybody's apple-cart if you do." "Well, I'm not likely to say anything against my own father. All the same," said Maudie, with the suspicion of a pout, "I do think that father ought to feel it incumbent upon him not to disgrace us in public places. If he was only dining with a friend why couldn't I go and speak to him--I'm his own child? And if he was dining with somebody he wouldn't like to take home--" "And you can bet your bottom dollar he wouldn't," said Harry. "Then I think he ought to give an account of himself." "Oh yes, I know, that's justice, man's justice. Come, come, come, Mrs. Harry Marksby," said Harry in a tone of cheerful warning; "and here we are at the theatre. Now, don't say a word to your mother, she's upset enough, poor old lady." Now, as Mrs. Whittaker had dined the little party, it became Harry's pleasing duty to give them supper, and from the theatre they went to a certain fashionable supper-room, again by means of a couple of hansoms. This time it was Julia who shared the hansom of her brother-in-law. "Now, look here, Harry," she said, "for goodness' sake don't say anything about having seen daddy to-night." "Why, what do you take me for? Do you think I was born yesterday--or the day after to-morrow?" "But mother says she knows all about it, and that it's much more simple than we think, and she thinks that Maudie will go blabbing it out." "Oh, that's all right, I have given her a hint already. At the same time, I think your father ought to--well--ought to make things a little more secure."