"Oh, he doesn't even know that I have come!" Eleanor said; "he mustn't know it. Oh, please!" She was terrified. "Don't tell him, Mrs. Dale. Promise me you won't! He would be angry." Her frightened despair was pitiful; Lily was at her wits' end. "My soul and body!" she thought, "what am I going to do with her?" But what was all this business? Mrs. Curtis asking for Jacky--and Mr. Curtis not knowing it? What was all this funny business? "Now I tell you," she said; "you and me are just two ladies who understand each other, and I'm going to be straight with you: if Mr. Curtis is trying to get my child away from me, he'll have a sweet time doing it! There's other places than Medfield to live in. I have a friend in New York, a society lady; she's always after me to come and live there. Mind! I'm not mad at _you_, you poor woman that couldn't have a baby--it's him I'm mad at! He knows Jacky is mine, and I'll go to New York before I'll--" "Oh, don't say that!" Eleanor pleaded; "my husband hasn't tried to get Jacky; it's just I!" She saw, with panic, that what Maurice had said was true--Lily might "run"! If she did, there would be no hope of getting Jacky ... and Edith would be in Mercer.... "Mrs. Dale, _promise_ me you'll stay in Medfield? It was only I who was trying to get Jacky; Mr. Curtis never thought of such a thing! I wanted him. I'd do everything for him; I'd--I'd give him music lessons." "Honest," said Lily, soberly, "I believe you're crazy." She looked crazy--this poor, gray-haired woman of pitiful dignity and breeding. ("I bet she's sixty!" Lily thought)--this old, childless woman, with a "Mrs." to her name, pleading with a mother to give up her boy, so he could have "music lessons"! "And Mr. Curtis's up against _that_," Lily thought, and instantly her anger at Maurice ebbed. "There, dear," she said, touching Eleanor's wet cheeks gently with that perfumed handkerchief; "I don't believe you've had any supper. I'm going to get you something to eat--" "No, please; _please_ no!" Eleanor said. She had risen. She thought, "If she says 'dear' again, I'll--I'll die!" ... "I promise you on my word of honor," she said, faintly, "that I won't try to take Jacky away from you, if--" she paused; it was terrible to have a secret with this woman; it put her in her power, but she couldn't help it--"I won't try to get him, if you won't tell Mr. Curtis that I ... have been here? _Please_ promise me!" "Don't you worry," Lily said, reassuringly; "I won't give you away to him." Eleanor was moving, stumbling a little, toward the door; Lily hesitated, then ran and caught her own coat and hat from the rack in the hall. "Wait!" she said, pinning her hat on at a hasty and uncertain angle; "I'm going with you! It ain't right for you to go by yourself ... Jacky," she called out to the kitchen, "you be a good boy! Maw'll be home soon."