She smiled, but took no more heed. "Well, I was in a scrape, wasn't I? I saw that clearly--rather a bad scrape. I didn't see what to do, though I did a lot of thinking. Being in a scrape does teach one to think, doesn't it? Then suddenly--when I was at my wits' end--it flashed across me that possibly it might all have happened for the best. My great object all through my girlhood was, somehow or other, to get into touch with my father. I believed that, if I could get a fair chance, I could win him over and persuade him to let me pay him a visit--even live with him perhaps. That was my great dream--and I was prepared to go through a lot for the hope of it. Well, it didn't come off. I don't know what Mr. Powers did--but it was not my father who came, it was Mr. Cartmell. I was taken away from the Smalls, but not allowed to come here. I was sent to the Simpsons. My father never wrote one word, good or bad, to me. Mr. Cartmell gave me a lecture. I didn't mind that. I was so furious with him for coming that I didn't care a straw what he said."
"Yes--that time. One can't always succeed. Still it's wonderful how often a scrape can be turned to account, if you think how to use it. You're in a corner: that sharpens your brains; you hit on something."
"Perhaps it does. You seem to speak from experience."
"Well, nobody means to get into them, of course, but you get drawn on. It's fun to see how far you can go--and what other people will do, and so on."
"Well, perhaps that's part of the fun. By the by, I suppose I might get into a little scrape if I stayed here much longer. Chat would be very shocked--Loft, too, I expect!"
"Yes." She rose and drew her cloak round her. "Mr. Powers didn't come to dinner," she said. "On reflection, I wrote to him and told him that it was better not to renew our acquaintance, and that he must accept that as my final decision."
"That's something gained, anyhow," said I, with a sigh of relief.
"Something gained for you?" she asked quickly and suspiciously.
"I don't believe I was thinking of myself at the moment."
She looked at me closely. "No, I don't think you were--and there's no real reason why it should make any difference to you. Well, that depends on yourself! Mr. Powers is of no consequence one way or the other. The question is--are we two to try and get on together."