At the mention of Rothsay Josephine started, and there was an increase of color in her face, but otherwise she was very calm, and her voice was perfectly natural as she repeated the word Rothsay, evidently trying to recall something connected with that place. At last she succeeded, and said, “Rothsay—Rothsay, in Ohio. Why, that is where Mr. Forrest lives. Mr. J. Everard Forrest, Jr. He boarded with mamma two or three years ago. He was in college at Amherst. Probably you know him,” and the blue eyes looked very innocently at Beatrice, who, warned by the perfect acting to be cautious and guarded, replied, “Oh, yes, I know Everard Forrest. His mother was a distant relative of mine. She is dead. Did you know?” “I think I heard so. Everard was very fond of his mother,” Josephine said; then, after a pause she added, “Judge Forrest is very wealthy, and very aristocratic, isn’t he?” “He was always called so, and the Forrest property is said to be immense,” Beatrice replied, quieting her conscience with the fact that, so far as the judge was concerned, she had put him in the past tense, and spoken of what he was _once_ rather than of what he was at _present_, but Josephine paid no attention to tenses, and had no suspicion whatever of the truth. She was really a good deal startled and shaken, mentally, notwithstanding the calmness of her demeanor. Here was a person from Rothsay who knew Everard Forrest, and who might be of great service to her in the future, and it behooved her to be on her best behavior. “Is Everard married yet?” she asked after a moment. “Married?” Beatrice repeated, and she felt the color rising in her face. “Why, he has not his profession yet, but is studying very hard in his father’s office.” “Ah, yes, I remember, he intended to be a lawyer. I liked him very much, he was so pleasant and gentlemanly,” Josephine said, and there was a drooping of the heavy lashes over her blue eyes, as if with regret for the past, when she knew and liked Everard Forrest. “But is there no one to whom he is particularly attentive?” she asked. “He used to be very fond of the girls, and there most be some one in Rothsay suitable for him, or is his father so proud that he would object to everybody?” Beatrice knew perfectly well what Josephine meant, and answered that she had heard the judge was very particular, and would resent a marriage which he thought beneath his son, “but if the woman was good, and true, and pure, and did her best, I think it would all be well in time,” she added, as an encouragement to this girl in whom she was trying to believe; and Josephine continued: “He used to speak of a little girl, Rosamond, I think, was the name. She must be well grown by this time. Is she there now?”