‘My dear Mr. Charteris,’ said Mr. Lovett, ‘you have taken us all aback. Do you mean to tell me that you have met Hilda before?’ ‘Have I _not_ met Hilda before?’ he echoed, in the old joyous tone that sent a shiver through my heart. ‘Ask her yourself if you don’t believe me! Why, we were the very best of friends some few years ago, when I was an idle young fellow, loafing half my time away down at their pretty little place in Norwood. By the way, Miss Marsh, I hope that your mother is perfectly well.’ At this careless question, which told me so cruelly how little interest I and my affairs had held for him since our parting, I raised my eyes and looked in Cave Charteris’s face. Something in their expression, I suppose, added to my black dress, revealed the truth to him, for though Tessie interposed with a quick ‘_Hush!_’ it was almost drowned in his apology. ‘I beg your pardon _so_ much! I am afraid I have made a great mistake, but it is so long since we met, you see; and I have been out of the world lately, and the reach of news.’ ‘It is no matter,’ I uttered faintly, as I turned to Mr. Lovett. The old man folded me in his arms as though I had really been his daughter. ‘Hilda and I have had a mutual misfortune lately, Mr. Charteris,’ he explained. ‘She has lost the best of mothers, and I one whom, though I had never had the pleasure of meeting, I reckoned amongst the most valued of my friends. Hilda’s father and myself were sworn chums in the old college days, and, after his lamented death, there was nothing to which I looked forward in the future with so much pleasure as the hope that I might meet and be of service to his widow and child. However, there is a Power above that disposes such things for us, and that is the reason that you find Hilda here, living in my house, and second only to my own daughters in my affection and esteem. Go, my dear!’ he added kindly to me, ‘and tell Madame that we are ready for our dinner! I will take Mr. Charteris meanwhile to his room, and when we meet again, I trust we shall all feel more at ease than we do at present.’ I was so grateful to my guardian for dismissing me at that moment, that I fled to the presence of Madame Marmoret as if she had been an angel of light instead of very much the reverse. Her sharp eyes detected my agitation in a moment. ‘_Eh bien!_’ she exclaimed, as she fixed those piercing black orbs upon my countenance. ‘And if they _do_ want their dinner, is that any reason you should be as white as a peeled turnip? Mamselle Ange has been the colour of a carrot all day, and now you have thought fit to do the other thing! What does it all mean? Young men were not so scarce with me, when _I_ was a girl, that they caused such a commotion as all that comes to; and if this stranger is to set the whole house topsy-turvy, why, the sooner he goes back to wherever he came from, the better; that’s what _I_ say!’ ‘Oh, hush, Madame! He may hear you.’