she was a good-natured
woman. Her fits of temper (as is usual with good-natured people) were of
the hot and the short-lived sort, easily roused and easily appeased.

"I never thought of that," she said. "Look here! if I give you the
address, will you promise to tell me all about it when you come back?"

I gave the required promise, and received the address in return.

"No malice," said the landlady, suddenly resuming all her old
familiarity with me.

"No malice," I answered, with all possible cordiality on my side.

In ten minutes more I was at my mother-in-law's lodgings.

CHAPTER VI. MY OWN DISCOVERY.

FORTUNATELY for me, the landlord did not open the door when I rang. A
stupid maid-of-all-work, who never thought of asking me for my name, let
me in. Mrs. Macallan was at home, and had no visitors with her. Giving
me this information, the maid led the way upstairs, and showed me into
the drawing-room without a word of announcement.

My mother-in-law was sitting alone, near a work-table, knitting. The
moment I appeared in the doorway she laid aside her work, and, rising,
signed to me with a commanding gesture of her hand to let her speak
first.

"I know what you have come here for," she said. "You have come here to
ask questions. Spare yourself, and spare me. I warn you beforehand that
I will not answer any questions relating to my son."

It was firmly, but not harshly said. I spoke firmly in my turn.

"I have not come here, madam, to ask questions about your son," I
answered. "I have come, if you will excuse me, to ask you a question
about yourself."

She started, and looked at me keenly over her spectacles. I had
evidently taken her by surprise.

"What is the question?" she inquired.

"I now know for the first time, madam, that your name is Macallan," I
said. "Your son has married me under the name of Woodville. The only
honorable explanation of this circumstance, so far as I know, is that my
husband is your son by a first marriage. The happiness of my life is at
stake. Will you kindly consider my position? Will you let me ask you if
you have been twice married, and if the name of your first husband was
Woodville?"

She considered a little before she replied.

"The question is a perfectly natural one in your position," she said.
"But I think I had better not answer it."

"May I as k why?"

"Certainly. If I answered you, I should only lead to other questions,
and I should be obliged to declin