t
it another way. Tell me the things that I must know about the Duchess of
Mowbray."

"As for instance?" he asked quietly.

"Her people," Lady Medlincourt said. "You are American, I suppose,
child?" she continued. "You have very little accent, but I fancy that I
can just detect it, and we don't see eyes like yours in England."

"Yes, I am American, Lady Medlincourt," Virginia answered.

"Who are your people, then?" Lady Medlincourt asked. "Where did you
meet? Who introduced you? Don't look at one another like a pair of
stupids. Remember that, however pointed my questions may sound, they are
things which I must know if I am to be of any use to you."

Virginia went a little pale.

"Lady Medlincourt," she said, "I am sorry, but I cannot answer any
questions just now."

Lady Medlincourt drew back a little in her place. She looked at the girl
in frank amazement.

"What!" she exclaimed.

Guy leaned forward in his chair.

"Dear aunt," he pleaded, "don't think that we are both mad, but I have
promised Virginia that she shan't be bothered with questions for a short
time. I met her on the steamer coming over from America, and that is all
we can tell you just now."

Lady Medlincourt looked from one to the other. She was more than a
trifle bewildered.

"Bless the boy!" she exclaimed. "You don't call this bothering her with
questions, do you? She can tell me about her people, can't she?"

"Her people," he answered firmly, "are going to be my people."

Lady Medlincourt gasped.

"You have known her, then," she said, "about three weeks?"

"I have known her long enough to realize that she is the girl whom I
have been waiting for all my life."

Lady Medlincourt shrugged her shoulders.

"All your life!" she exclaimed impatiently. "Twenty-eight silly years!
Have you nothing more to say to me than this, either of you? Do you
seriously mean that you bring this very charming young lady here, and
ask me to accept her as your fiancee, without a single word of
explanation as to her antecedents, who she is, or where she came from?"

Virginia rose to her feet.

"Guy," she said, turning towards him, "we ought never to have come here.
Lady Medlincourt has a perfect right to ask these questions. Until we
can answer them we ought to go away."

Guy took her hand in his.

"Aunt," he said, "can't you trust a little in my judgment? Look at her.
She is the girl whom I love, and whom I am going to trust with my name.
Can't you