Page:Elizabeth Jordan--Tales of the city room.djvu/183

 Truth realizes that it may not prevail in a gathering which is decidedly not in sympathy with the speaker."

She ended with a stage sigh, and the others laughed, glad of any relief in a topic that had been depressing to all.

"Does n't it seem to you," said Mrs. Ogilvie, in her quiet way, "that before we decide this question the person most concerned should be heard from? Surely there is some way of learning the truth and of defending her,—or of getting her to defend herself. The person we should hear from next is—"

"Miss Bertram," said Miss Herrick's maid, at the door. With a quick and expressive glance at the group, the hostess went to meet the new arrival.

"If that had happened in a play," murmured Miss Imboden, "we should have thought it a very forced situation. And yet here she is, at just the right moment, to speak for herself. Query, will she speak?"

The young woman who was entering the room with Miss Herrick came forward with the assured air of one who joins a circle of