from the open side of the bed, to arrive at any definite conclusion as
to what might be passing in his mind. After having been awake for some
hours during the earlier part of the night, he had enjoyed a long and
undisturbed sleep. "I feel stronger this morning," he said, "and I wish
to speak to you while my mind is clear."

If the quiet tone of his voice was not an assumed tone, he was surely
ignorant of all that had passed between his daughter and myself.

"Eunice will be here soon," he proceeded, "and I ought to explain why I
have sent for her to come and meet you. I have reasons, serious reasons,
mind, for wishing you to compare her personal appearance with Helena's
personal appearance, and then to tell me which of the two, on a fair
comparison, looks the eldest. Pray bear in mind that I attach the
greatest importance to the conclusion at which you may arrive."

He spoke more clearly and collectedly than I had heard him speak yet.

Here and there I detected hesitations and repetitions, which I have
purposely passed over. The substance of what he said to me is all that I
shall present in this place. Careful as I have been to keep my record of
events within strict limits, I have written at a length which I was far
indeed from contemplating when I accepted Mr. Gracedieu's invitation.

Having promised to comply with the strange request which he had
addressed to me, I ventured to remind him of past occasions on which
he had pointedly abstained, when the subject presented itself, from
speaking of the girls' ages. "You have left it to my discretion," I
added, "to decide a question in which you are seriously interested,
relating to your daughters. Have I no excuse for regretting that I have
not been admitted to your confidence a little more freely?"

"You have every excuse," he answered. "But you trouble me all the same.
There was something else that I had to say to you--and your curiosity
gets in the way."

He said this with a sullen emphasis. In my position, the worst of evils
was suspense. I told him that my curiosity could wait; and I begged that
he would relieve his mind of what was pressing on it at the moment.

"Let me think a little," he said.

I waited anxiously for the decision at which he might arrive. Nothing
came of it to justify my misgivings. "Leave what I have in my mind to
ripen in my mind," he said. "The mystery about the girls' ages seems to
irritate you. If I put my good friend's temper to any fu