ill go home with everything done, and I shall have
had nearly two hours of her delightful society. What harm is there
in that?"

"Where are the dogs?" said Sir Wilfrid, looking round.

"Aunt Flora's dogs? In the housekeeper's room, eating sweet biscuit.
They adore the groom of the chambers."

"Is Lady Henry aware of this--this division of labor?" said Sir Wilfrid,
smiling.

"Of course not," said the Duchess, flushing. "She makes Julie's life
such a burden to her that something has to be done. Now what _has_ Aunt
Flora been telling you? We were certain she would take you into
council--she has dropped various hints of it. I suppose she has been
telling you that Julie has been intriguing against her--taking
liberties, separating her from her friends, and so on?"

Sir Wilfrid smilingly presented his cup for some more tea.

"I beg to point out," he said, "that I have only been allowed _two_
questions so far. But if things are to be at all fair and equal, I am
owed at least six."

The Duchess drew back, checked, and rather annoyed. Jacob Delafield, on
the other hand, bent forward.

"We are _anxious_, Sir Wilfrid, to tell you all we know," he replied,
with quiet emphasis.

Sir Wilfrid looked at him. The flame in the young man's eyes burned
clear and steady--but flame it was. Sir Wilfrid remembered him as a
lazy, rather somnolent youth; the man's advance in expression, in
significant power, of itself, told much.

"In the first place, can you give me the history of this lady's
antecedents?"

He glanced from one to the other.

The Duchess and Jacob Delafield exchanged glances. Then the Duchess
spoke--uncertainly.

"Yes, we know. She has confided in us. There is nothing whatever to her
discredit."

Sir Wilfrid's expression changed.

"Ah!" cried the Duchess, bending forward. "You know, too?"

"I knew her father and mother," said Sir Wilfrid, simply.

The Duchess gave a little cry of relief. Jacob Delafield rose, took a
turn across the room, and came back to Sir Wilfrid.

"Now we can really speak frankly," he said. "The situation has grown
very difficult, and we did not know--Evelyn and I--whether we had a
right to explain it. But now that Lady Henry--"

"Oh yes," said Sir Wilfrid, "that's all right. The fact of Mademoiselle
Le Breton's parentage--"

"Is really what makes Lady Henry so jealous!" cried the Duchess,
indignantly. "Oh, she's a tyrant, is Aunt Flora! It is because Julie is
of her own world--of