ot a letter--?"

"Not from Mrs. Stringham--no." He failed again however to develop
this--for which her forbearance from another question gave him
occasion. From whom then had he heard? He might at last, confronted
with her, really have been gaining time; and as if to show that she
respected this impulse she made her enquiry different. "Should you like
to go out to her--to Mrs. Stringham?"

About that at least he was clear. "Not at all. She's alone, but she's
very capable and very courageous. Besides--!" He had been going on, but
he dropped.

"Besides," she said, "there's Eugenio? Yes, of course one remembers
Eugenio."

She had uttered the words as definitely to show them for not untender;
and he showed equally every reason to assent. "One remembers him
indeed, and with every ground for it. He'll be of the highest value to
her--he's capable of anything. What I was going to say," he went on,
"is that some of their people from America must quickly arrive."

On this, as happened, Kate was able at once to satisfy him. "Mr.
Someone-or-other, the person principally in charge of Milly's
affairs--her first trustee, I suppose--had just got there at Mrs.
Stringham's last writing."

"Ah that then was after your aunt last spoke to me--I mean the last
time before this morning. I'm relieved to hear it. So," he said,
"they'll do."

"Oh they'll do." And it came from each still as if it wasn't what each
was most thinking of. Kate presently got however a step nearer to that.
"But if you had been wired to by nobody what then this morning had
taken you to Sir Luke?"

"Oh something else--which I'll presently tell you. It's what made me
instantly need to see you; it's what I've come to speak to you of. But
in a minute. I feel too many things," he went on, "at seeing you in
this place." He got up as he spoke; she herself remained perfectly
still. His movement had been to the fire, and, leaning a little, with
his back to it, to look down on her from where he stood, he confined
himself to his point. "Is it anything very bad that has brought you?"

He had now in any case said enough to justify her wish for more; so
that, passing this matter by, she pressed her own challenge. "Do you
mean, if I may ask, that _she_, dying--?" Her face, wondering, pressed
it more than her words.

"Certainly you may ask," he after a moment said. "What has come to me
is what, as I say, I came expressly to tell you. I don't mind letting
you know," he went