When she said that Peter Kennedy looked up. He tingled all over and his forehead flushed. He made a step forward and then stood still. His instinct told him here was an enemy, an enemy of Margaret's. He looked, too, at Margaret.
"Your name is Gabriel Stanton."
"My name is Peter Kennedy."
Margaret's quick mind leapt to the truth, saw, and foresaw what was coming. She turned very pale, as if she had been struck. Peter Kennedy moved nearer to her.
"Shall I turn her out?" he asked.
Mrs. Roope fanned herself with her bonnet strings as if she had said nothing unusual.
"You had better see me alone," she said, not menacingly but as if she had established her point. To save repetition the rest of her conversation can be recorded without the affliction that retarded it.
"No," Margaret answered, her courage at low ebb. "Stay where you are," she said to Peter Kennedy.
"You don't suppose I am going, do you?" he asked. Mrs. Roope, after a glance, ignored him.
"Perhaps you are not aware that you have been under observation for some time. My call on you is one of kindness, of kindness only. James Capel is my husband's cousin."
