Lady William cast at him a keen look from under her eyelids. She remembered her brother’s adjuration, ‘for all our sakes.’ ‘A romantic task,’ she said, ‘that would prove what you could do is quite different. I ask my friend to help me in a way I really want; but no one ever wanted a white cat that would go through a ring--or was it a shawl? I forget.’ ‘I never thought,’ he said, with an uneasy laugh, ‘that you would send me off in search of a white cat.’ ‘I might, though,’ she said, ‘if the white cat would turn out an enchanted princess and make you happy all your life after--which I hope is what will happen one of these days. And my gracious nephew, Leo, did he leave you as he said?’ Leo replied with another question: ‘How does Miss Mab like it that she is to be an heiress? I have not seen her to ask her.’ ‘You can see her at once. She is there, you see, with her friends the boatmen; but you must not ask her, please, for she knows nothing of heiress-ship as yet.’ ‘Ah!’ he said, ‘you are afraid to turn her head.’ ‘I am not at all afraid of her head, but I am afraid of other things. Tell me, why did he come here? The Pakenhams are not generous people, and they are not rich, and I should have known nothing of Lord John’s fortune. Was it out of kindness to his cousin, whom he did not know, that he came here?’ ‘Ah, who can tell?’ said Leo. ‘He thought, perhaps, that you were sure to see it in the papers.’ ‘But even then I should not have known that Mab had any right.’ ‘Who can tell?’ said Leo again, shaking his head, ‘what are the motives of these people who are above rule, who do not require to behave like ordinary mortals? He thought, perhaps, yes, of his little cousin--he thought, perhaps, most likely of himself. He might have thought with all that fortune that it might be well if Miss Mab, perhaps, should--what do you call it?--take a fancy to him, and return it all to his pocket, which is not too full. How can you tell what any one’s motives are, not to speak of a Lord Will?’ ‘It is true,’ said Lady William, with a sigh; ‘but I suppose my best course now is to wait--to take no steps till I hear from the lawyers.’ ‘Perhaps, instead, your own lawyer----’ ‘Ah, I have had so little need of one--of course there is a man of business who used to manage my father’s affairs. One does not seem to care,’ she said, with a faint laugh, ‘we poor people, who have nothing but our poverty--to confide all our affairs even to such a man.’ ‘Ah, but they are not men--they are like priests. There is a seal as of the confessional upon their lips. I should not have thought you, who are so transparent, so open, would have had such a scruple.’