Although he went to the house several times again in the course of the next few days, he did not see Mrs. Southgate. She was always engaged with the correspondence which had resulted from her husband's death. "She writes a very nice letter, if I give her a general idea of what ought to be said," Antonia had explained to Williams. One afternoon about a month after Southgate's death, as Williams was leaving his office in Nassau Street, a card was brought to him. He did not know the name, and he sent word that he was just going home. If the gentleman could give him some idea-- Word came back that the gentleman was an old friend of Mrs. Southgate. Then Williams knew that he was holding in his hand the mate of the card that Doris Helen had pressed down upon her lap so tenderly that afternoon. The name was Dominic Hale. Even Antonia could not have complained of lack of vitality in the young man who presently walked into Williams' private office. There was something vigorous about the way he was built, the way he moved, the way his thick brown hair grew, like a close dark cap on his head. He spoke at once. "I wanted to see you, Mr. Williams, as a friend of Mrs. Southgate's. You are a friend, aren't you?" "Yes," said Williams, speaking as a man; and then added as a lawyer, "Though I must confess I have seen her only once in my life." "My goodness!" said Hale, with a shake of his head, "I never knew of such a thing! I can't find that anyone has seen her more than once or twice in the course of the last five years. Wasn't she allowed friends?" "Perhaps she did not want any." Hale gave what in a tiger would have been a growl, but which in a man was merely a sound expressing complete disagreement. "A girl of twenty-five--" he said; and added without pause, "Mr. Williams, I want to marry Mrs. Southgate." The exclamation "Good!" which rose to Williams' lips was suppressed in favor of "I see." Then he went on, "And does she want to marry you?" "She says not." "But does not convince you of her sincerity?" "Well, she said not in just the same tone seven years ago, when we became engaged." "Oh, you and she were engaged before her marriage?" "Yes, we called it that. We had no possible prospect of ever getting married. Then just before I went abroad to study--" "And may I ask what it was you went abroad to study, Mr. Hale?" The young man looked at him a moment in surprise before he answered, "Painting. I'm Dominic Hale." Williams shook his head. "Ought I to know?" Hale laughed. "You perfectly well might," he said. "Doris broke our engagement before I went. We did not part in a very friendly spirit." "I see. She had already decided--" "Oh, no! This was months before she went to the Southgates. She thought it was wrong for us to be tangled up with each other so hopelessly. It made me furious. She was so firm and clear about-- She has a will of iron, that girl."