At nine o'clock she heard the motor come to the door. She went into the hall. Ann got out first and helped Wally. He was carrying the heroine--asleep, in the utter relaxation of tired babyhood. She was dirty, and her best hat dangled from its elastic, crushed and dusty.
"Well," remarked Mrs. Bryce, "where was she?"
"I'll take her up to the bedroom, Miss Barnes," Wally said, and he started off.
"Really, Wally, Miss Barnes can certainly manage to get her to bed," protested Mrs. Bryce.
"Put her down and let her walk then. I've waited for my dinner as long as I intend to."
Wally went on upstairs with his burden, and as Ann passed Mrs. Bryce her scorn and hatred of that lace-clad lady was as obvious as a spoken word. Mrs. Bryce went to the table and ordered her dinner. When Wally joined her he looked "all in."
"I suppose you don't care whether she gets killed or not."
"Well, but she didn't get killed, so I don't have to excite myself, do I?"
"You might show a little decent feeling before Miss Barnes."
"I don't have to please Miss Barnes--or any of my servants, if it comes to that."
"If you're going to be tiresome, I'll finish my dinner upstairs," she replied. "Heaven knows, if I'd had any idea you would be such a bore about her, I'd never have turned her over to you."
"Do you know why she ran away? She went to find some 'regular parents'--so she said."
"We don't suit then?" Mrs. Bryce laughed crisply.
"The poor little devil walked and walked, and when she was too tired to go any farther she asked a milk wagon driver to give her a lift, so she got away over to Rockville."
"Where did she get this idea about parents?"
"Miss Barnes explained to me on the way home, that she and Isabelle have a game called 'Playing Jinny.' Jinny is Miss Barnes's little sister and Isabelle pretends that she lives in the Barnes family."
"So, it is your paragon who has set her against her own parents."
"No, she didn't mean to do that. She says she had no idea that the child would take it seriously and start off to find the Barnes home."
"Do you think it desirable to have your child in the sole charge of a woman who poisons her mind against you and me?"
"But she doesn't do that, Max. Isabelle adores her. It was just a game, I tell you."