Miss Ashleigh?
Does her character resemble her mother's?"

I was afraid while I spoke that I should again meet Mrs. Poyntz's
searching gaze, but she did not this time look up from her work.

"No; Lilian is anything but commonplace."

"You described her as having delicate health; you implied a hope that
she was not consumptive. I trust that there is no serious reason for
apprehending a constitutional tendency which at her age would require
the most careful watching!"

"I trust not. If she were to die--Dr. Fenwick, what is the matter?"

So terrible had been the picture which this woman's words had brought
before me, that I started as if my own life had received a shock.

"I beg pardon," I said falteringly, pressing my hand to my heart; "a
sudden spasm here,--it is over now. You were saying that--that--"

"I was about to say-" and here Mrs. Poyntz laid her hand lightly on
mine,--"I was about to say that if Lilian Ashleigh were to die, I should
mourn for her less than I might for one who valued the things of the
earth more. But I believe there is no cause for the alarm my words so
inconsiderately excited in you. Her mother is watchful and devoted; and
if the least thing ailed Lilian, she would call in medical advice. Mr.
Vigors would, I know, recommend Dr. Jones."

Closing our conference with those stinging words, Mrs. Poyntz here
turned back into the drawing-room.

I remained some minutes on the balcony, disconcerted, enraged. With
what consummate art had this practised diplomatist wound herself into my
secret! That she had read my heart better than myself was evident from
that Parthian shaft, barbed with Dr. Jones, which she had shot over her
shoulder in retreat. That from the first moment in which she had decoyed
me to her side, she had detected "the something" on my mind, was perhaps
but the ordinary quickness of female penetration. But it was with no
ordinary craft that the whole conversation afterwards had been so shaped
as to learn the something, and lead me to reveal the some one to whom
the something was linked. For what purpose? What was it to her? What
motive could she have beyond the mere gratification of curiosity?
Perhaps, at first, she thought I had been caught by her daughter's showy
beauty, and hence the half-friendly, half-cynical frankness with which
she had avowed her ambitious projects for that young lady's matrimonial
advancement. Satisfied by my manner that I cherished no presumptuous
hopes