Then, while they were preparing tea, the tale was told, or at least a part of it. But even that part was enough to make Jack Martyn grave. As the telling proceeded, he grew graver and graver, until, at the end, he wore a face of portentous gloom. When they seated themselves to the meal he made precisely the remark which they had expected him to make. He rested his hands on his knees, and he solemnly shook his head. "This comes of your being alone in the house!" Ella laughed. "There! now you've started him on his own particular crotchet; he'll never let you hear the last of this." Jack went on. "I've said before, and I say again, and I shall keep on saying, that you two girls ought not to live alone by yourselves in a house in this out-of-the-way corner of the world." "Out-of-the-way corner of the world!--on Wandsworth Common!" "For all practical intents and purposes you might as well be in the middle of the Desert of Sahara; you might shriek and shriek and I doubt if any one would hear you. This agreeable visitor of Madge's might have cut her throat from ear to ear, or chopped her into mincemeat, and she would have been as incapable of summoning assistance as if she had been at the top of Mont Blanc." "That's it. Jack--pile it on!" "I don't think it's fair of you to talk like that, Ella; I'm not piling it on; I'm just speaking the plain and simple truth. Honestly, Madge, when you've been alone in the house all day long, haven't you felt that you were at the mercy of the first evil-disposed person who chose to come along; or, if you haven't felt it before, don't you think you'll feel it now?" "No--to both your questions." "Supposing this woman comes back again to-morrow?" Madge had to bite her lip to repress a shudder; the idea was not a pleasant one. "She won't come back." "But suppose she does?--and from what you say I think it very probable that she will; if not to-morrow, then the day after." "If she comes the day after to-morrow she'll find me out; I shall be out all day." "There's a confession! It's only because you know that you will be out that you're able to face the prospect with equanimity." "You are not entitled to infer anything of the kind." Ella interposed, perceiving that the girl was made uncomfortable by the man's persistence. "Don't do quite so much supposing, Jack; let me do a little for a change. Suppose we lived in one of those flats in the charming neighbourhood of Chancery Lane or Bloomsbury, after which--vicariously--your soul so hankers, how much better off should we be there?" "You would, at any rate, be within the reach of assistance."