Her chin only cleared the edge of it-he was a tall man, her husband.
"This is the place of secrets, I suppose ?" she said, with a bright smile and an attempt at gaiety to Kitty, who had watched her with burning eyes; for she had felt the thrill of the moment.

She was as sensitive to atmosphere of this sad play of life as nearly and as vitally as the deserted wife.
"I shouldn't think it a place of secrets," Kitty answered after a moment.

"He seldom locks it, and when he does I know where the key is." "Indeed ?" Mona Crozier stiffened.

A look of reproach came into her eyes.
It was as though she was looking down from a great height upon a poor creature who did not know the first rudiments of personal honour, the fine elemental customs of life.
Kitty saw and understood, but she did not hasten to reply, or to set things right.

She met the lofty look unflinchingly, and she had pride and some little malice too--it would do Mrs.Crozier good, she thought--in saying, as she looked down on the humming-bird trying to be an eagle: "I've had to get things for him-papers and so on, and send them on when he was away, and even when he was at home I've had to act for him; and so even when it was locked I had to know where the key was.