"Ah! I had forgotten that!" She turned to him with contrition in her blue eyes. "Dr. Anstice, please forgive me! In my selfishness I was quite forgetting that you were a victim of this unknown person's spite! Of course the matter must be sifted to the very bottom; and if Tochatti is indeed guilty she must be punished."
"I think you are quite right, Chloe." Sir Richard spoke with unexpected decision. "For all our sakes the matter must be cleared up. You see"--he hesitated--"there are others to be considered besides ourselves."
"My husband, for one," said Chloe unexpectedly. "I heard from him this morning--he is back in England again now."
"Mrs. Carstairs"--Anstice, feeling desperately uncomfortable, broke into the conversation abruptly--"may I go upstairs and say good-night to Cherry? You know I got into serious trouble for not going up the last time I was here."
She turned to him, smiling.
"Of course you may, Dr. Anstice. I know Cherry would be heart-broken to hear you had gone without seeing her. You know the way?"
"Yes, thanks." He had grown familiar with the house during the weeks of Cherry's illness. "I won't stay long--and I'll not wake her if she's asleep."
She was not asleep, however; and her face lighted with pleasure as Anstice stole quietly in.
"Oh, do come in, my dear!" She sat up in bed, a quaint little figure with two thick brown plaits, tied with cherry-coloured ribbons, over her shoulders. "I'm just about fed up with this stupid old bed!"
She thumped her pillows resentfully; and Anstice, coming up, sat down beside her, and beat up the offending pillows with the mock professional touch which Cherry adored.
"That better, eh?"
"Rather!" She leaned back luxuriously. "Wasn't it a shame sending me to bed to-day? And I hadn't really done nothing!" The intensity of the speech called for the double negation.
"Well, I don't know what you call nothing," returned Anstice, smiling. "Apparently you'd given poor Tochatti a terrible fright----"
"Serve her right," said Cherry placidly. "She shouldn't have been so silly as to think any real person was dead. She might have known all the servants would have been howling on the doorstep then!"
The tone in which she made this remarkable statement was too much for Anstice's gravity; and he gave way to a fit of unrestrained laughter which mightily offended his small friend.