It seems to me that Mr. Dare has got
something to conceal; and I'd like to know what it is before I go any
farther."

"Any farther!" said her aunt contemptuously. "It don't seem to me that
you've got very far!"

"Farther than you think," was Miss Meldreth's reply. "He's afraid of me,
or else he would have come to tea this afternoon. And a woman can always
manage a man that's afraid of her."

Fortified by this conviction, Sabina sat down after tea to indite a
letter to Mrs. Vane. She was not a very deft scribe, and the spelling of
certain words was a mystery to her. But, with the faults of its
orthography corrected the letter finally stood thus--

"MADAM--I thought you might like to know as how there is a gentleman,
named Reuben Dare, lodging here at my aunt's, as seems to have a secret
interest in Beechfield. I think, but I am not quite sure, that he spent
a few days at the Beechfield inn not long ago. He is tall and thin and
brown, with white hair and beard and very black eyes. He will not talk
much about Beechfield, and yet seems to know it well. Says he comes from
America. He was walking for a long time in Kensington Garden this
morning with a young woman that goes by the name of Cynthia West and is
a singer. She calls; him 'Father.' Madam, I take the liberty of
informing you that Mr. H. Lepel visits her constant, and is said to be
going to marry her. She is what gentlemen call good-looking, though too
dark for my taste. It does not seem to be generally known that she has a
parent living.

"Yours respectfully,
"SABINA MELDRETH."

Mrs. Vane read this letter with considerable surprise. She meditated
upon it for some time with closed lips and knitted brows; then she rang
the bell for Parker.

"Parker," she said, "can you tell me whether any strangers have been
visiting Beechfield lately?"

"Oh, yes, ma'am! There was an old gentleman at the 'Crown' a few days
ago. The post-office woman told me that he came from America."

"Do you know his name?"

"Yes, ma'am--'Mr. Dare.'"

"The woman at the post-office told you that? Did you ever see him?"

"Yes, ma'am. He spoke to me one evening when I'd run out with a letter,
and asked me the way to the Hall."

"And then?"

"He said he'd heard of a Mr. Lepel at Beechfield, ma'am," said Parker,
rather reluctantly, "and that he knew a Mr. Lepel and wondered, whether
it was the same. But it wasn't. The Mr. Le