"What can it be then?" But Lady Fitzgerald sat there, and did not answer the question. "I'll tell you what I will do, mother; I'll go up to London, and see Prendergast, and consult him." "Oh, no; you mustn't do that. I am wrong to tell you all this, for he told me to talk to no one. But it would kill me if I didn't speak of it to you." "All the same, mother, I think it would be best to consult Prendergast." "Not yet, Herbert. I dare say Mr. Prendergast may be a very good sort of man, but we none of us know him. And if, as is very probable, this is only an affair of health, it would be wrong in you to go to a stranger. It might look--" "Look what, mother?" "People might think--he, I mean--that you wanted to interfere." "But who ought to interfere on his behalf if I don't?" "Quite true, dearest; I understand what you mean, and know how good you are. But perhaps Mr. Prendergast might not. He might think you wanted--" "Wanted what, mother? I don't understand you." "Wanted to take the things out of your father's hands." "Oh, mother!" "He doesn't know you. And, what is more, I don't think he knows much of your father. Don't go to him yet." And Herbert promised that he would not. "And you don't think that this man was ever here before?" he asked. "Well, I rather think he was here once before; many years ago--soon after you went to school." "So long ago as that?" "Yes; not that I remember him, or, indeed, ever knew of his coming then, if he did come. But Jones says that she thinks she remembers him." "Did Jones see him now?" "Yes; she was in the hall as he passed through on his way out. And it so happened that she let him in and out too when he came before. That is, if it is the same man." "That's very odd." "It did not happen here. We were at Tenby for a few weeks in the summer." "I remember; you went there with the girls just when I went back to school." "Jones was with us, and Richard. We had none other of our own servants. And Jones says that the same man did come then; that he stayed with your father for an hour or two; and that when he left, your father was depressed--almost as he was yesterday. I well remember that. I know that a man did come to him at Tenby; and--oh, Herbert!" "What is it, mother? Speak out at any rate to me." "Since that man came to him at Tenby he has never been like what he was before."