istake between you and him, and that Mercedes is
the reason of it."

They had reached the house.

"But wait," said Karen, turning to her. She laid both her hands on the
old woman's arm while she steadied her voice to speak this last thought.
"Wait. You are so kind to me, Mrs. Talcott; but you have made everything
strange--and dreadful. I must ask you--one question, Mrs. Talcott. You
have been with Tante all her life. No one knows her as you do. Tell me,
Mrs. Talcott. You love Tante?"

They faced each other at the top of the steps, on the verandah. And the
young eyes plunged deep into the old eyes, passionately searching.

For a moment Mrs. Talcott did not reply. When she did speak, it was
decisively as if, while recognising Karen's right to ask, Karen must
recognise that the answer must suffice. "I'd be pretty badly off if I
didn't love Mercedes. She's all I've got in the world."

CHAPTER XXXIII

The sound of the motor, whirring skilfully among the lanes, was heard at
six, and shortly after Madame von Marwitz's return Mrs. Talcott knocked
at her door.

Madame von Marwitz was lying on the sofa. Louise had removed her wraps
and dress and was drawing off her shoes. Her eyes were closed. She
seemed weary.

"I'll see to Madame," said Mrs. Talcott with her air of composed and
unassuming authority. It was somewhat the air of an old nurse, sure of
her prerogatives in the nursery.

Louise went and Mrs. Talcott took off the other shoe and fetched the
white silk _mules_.

Madame von Marwitz had only opened her eye for a glimmer of recognition,
but as Mrs. Talcott adjusted a _mule_, she tipped it off and muttered
gloomily: "Stockings, please. I want fresh stockings."

There was oddity--as Mrs. Talcott found, and came back, with a pair of
white silk stockings--in the sight of the opulent, middle-aged figure on
the sofa, childishly stretching out first one large bare leg and then
the other to be clothed; and it might have aroused in Mrs. Talcott a
vista of memories ending with the picture of a child in the same
attitude, a child as idle and as autocratic.

"Thank you, Tallie," Madame von Marwitz said, wearily but kindly, when
the stockings were changed.

Mrs. Talcott drew a chair in front of the sofa, seated herself and
clasped her hands at her waist. "I've come for a talk, Mercedes," she
said.

Madame von Marwitz now was sleepily observing her.

"A talk! _Bon Dieu!_ But I have been talking all day long!"