Mrs. Diggs remained with her new companion several minutes. Her severe back, in all its rather trying outlines, was presented to Claire during this interval, though once she slightly turned, making a little gesture with her bony hand that seemed to indicate either the table she had just quitted or the figure still seated there. And soon afterward Claire saw that the person whom she had heard named by Mrs. Diggs was looking steadily at her with a pair of cold, light-blue eyes. While she returned this look it struck her that a change of color touched the placid face of her observer, though the flush from faint pink into pink only by a shade less dim might easily have passed for a trick of deceptive fancy. Mrs. Diggs presently came trotting back to the table, with her odd combination of graceful movement and bodily sharpness. "My dear Mrs. Hollister," she began, while seating herself, "do you know that Cousin Cornelia knows all about you? I happened to mention your name before you were married--Miss Twining, wasn't it?" "Yes," replied Claire. "Well, the name seemed to strike her, and she at once asked if you had not stayed quite a long time with Mrs.... Mrs.... Oh, you mentioned her when you spoke of being here several weeks before your marriage." "Mrs. Bergemann," said Claire, and immediately added, in tones full of quiet interest: "Well, Mrs. Diggs?" "Why, that was what _placed_ you, don't you know, with Cousin Cornelia. Yes, Mrs. Bergemann; that was the name." "Did your cousin know Mrs. Bergemann?" inquired Claire. "She didn't say so. But she appeared to know just who _you_ were. I think she's going to make me present you. There seems to be some queer mystery. She acted rather strangely. Are you sure you've never met before?" "Yes, I am perfectly sure," answered Claire. "Did you not say that the lady's name was Van Horn?" "Cousin Cornelia's? Why, yes; of course it is. She's my second cousin. She's related on the Van Kortlandt side. She was a Miss Thurston." "Thurston," repeated Claire, not interrogatively, but as though she had caught the sound with recognition the instant it left the speaker's lips. She broke into a smile, now. "That explains everything. She is a sister of Mr. Beverley Thurston, is she not?" "Cousin Beverley? Of course she is. Do you know _him_?" "Oh, yes," said Claire. "I knew him very well." "Why, you don't tell me so!" blithely exclaimed Mrs. Diggs. "I dote on Beverley. I suppose he thinks me dreadful, but I dote on him, just the same. He is so broad, don't you know? He's seen so much, and read so much, and lived so much, generally. And with it all he's so conventional. That is the way I like conventionality--when you find it in some one who makes it a sort of fatigue-dress for liberal views, and not the uniform of narrow ones." "I approve your description of Mr. Thurston," said Claire, slowly. "It tells me how well you know him."