in."

"That is just what I thought of. The police have the key of the stable
where the body is. They would let you see it if you asked."

"It would be a pity if it was some harmless poor man," said Patsy, with
fire in his brown eyes.

He went towards the door and came back.

"It might be the hand of God," he said. "I had a word with Susan this
mornin'. She was tellin' me Miss Stella does be cryin' out not to let
some one ketch her, an' screamin' like a mad thing that she's ketched.
Supposin' that villain was to have put the heart across in the poor
child, an' she out wanderin' in the night! Wouldn't it be a quare
thing for him to tumble down there an' break his dirty neck before he
was let lay hold on her?"

It gave Lady O'Gara fresh food for thought, this hypothesis of Patsy's.
She put away the thoughts with a shudder. To what danger had poor
fevered Stella been exposed, wandering in the night? And what vengeful
Angel had interposed to save her?

She went back to Terry. He had made a very good lunch, she was glad to
see, and was just lighting a cigarette.

He looked up expectantly as she came in.

"You said I should see Stella if she would see me. It did not seem
like it last time."

A shade fell over his face as he concluded.

She sat down by him and told him of Stella's illness, of the
disappearance of her mother and her return. Of Patsy's suggestion she
did not speak. It would be too much for the poor boy, who sat,
knitting his brows over her tale, his face changing as he looked down
at the cigarette between his fingers. He had interjected one
breathless question. Was Stella better? Was she in any danger? And
his mother had answered that Dr. Costello was satisfied that the girl
would mend now.

"I suppose I must wait till she is better before seeing her," he said,
when his mother paused. "Poor little darling! I may tell you, Mother,
my mind is not shaken. I shall marry Stella if she will have me."

"You can walk with me if you like to the Waterfall Cottage," she said,
"and wait for me. There is something about the place that makes a
coward of me. It will be worse than ever now after your discovery."

She laughed nervously.

"Poor mother, you have too many troubles to bear!" he said with loving
compassion. "You carry all our burdens."

"I have sent Patsy to identify your dead man. I think he can do it."

She was saying to herself that never, never must Terry know the charges