tage; and I wanted to discover if
the hereditary taint had begun to show itself in the innocent offspring
of the murderess. Just as I was considering how I might harmlessly speak
of Miss Helena's "sister," Miss Helena herself introduced the subject.

"May I ask," she resumed, "if you were disappointed when you found
nobody but me to meet you at our station?"

Here was an opportunity of paying her a compliment, if I had been a
younger man, or if she had produced a favorable impression on me. As it
was, I hit--if I may praise myself--on an ingenious compromise.

"What excuse could I have," I asked, "for feeling disappointed?"

"Well, I hear you are an official personage--I ought to say, perhaps,
a retired official personage. We might have received you more
respectfully, if _both_ my father's daughters had been present at the
station. It's not my fault that my sister was not with me."

The tone in which she said this strengthened my prejudice against her.
It told me that the two girls were living together on no very
friendly terms; and it suggested--justly or unjustly I could not then
decide--that Miss Helena was to blame.

"My sister is away from home."

"Surely, Miss Helena, that is a good reason for her not coming to meet
me?"

"I beg your pardon--it is a bad reason. She has been sent away for the
recovery of her health--and the loss of her health is entirely her own
fault."

What did this matter to me? I decided on dropping the subject. My memory
reverted, however, to past occasions on which the loss of _my_ health
had been entirely my own fault. There was something in these personal
recollections, which encouraged my perverse tendency to sympathize with
a young lady to whom I had not yet been introduced. The young lady's
sister appeared to be discouraged by my silence. She said: "I hope you
don't think the worse of me for what I have just mentioned?"

"Certainly not."

"Perhaps you will fail to see any need of my speaking of my sister at
all? Will you kindly listen, if I try to explain myself?"

"With pleasure."

She slyly set the best construction on my perfectly commonplace reply.

"Thank you," she said. "The fact is, my father (I can't imagine why)
wishes you to see my sister as well as me. He has written to the
farmhouse at which she is now staying, to tell her to come
home to-morrow. It is possible--if your kindness offers me an
opportunity--that I may ask to be guided by your experience, in a li