But--allow me to ask--wouldn't it have been a little awkward (at my age) if I had come here and inquired for you as a friend?
Don't you think, in that case, the landlady might have made some additional difficulty about letting you have the rooms ?" It was beyond dispute that the landlady would have refused to let the rooms at all.

It was equally plain that the deception which Arnold had practiced on the people of the inn was a deception which Anne had herself rendered necessary, in her own interests.

She was not to blame; it was clearly impossible for her to have foreseen such an event as Geoffrey's departure for London.

Still, she felt an uneasy sense of responsibility--a vague dread of what might happen next.

She sat nervously twisting her handkerchief in her lap, and made no answer.
"Don't suppose I object to this little stratagem," Arnold went on.