“You need not, indeed,” said George in a vibrating voice, gazing intently at the black silhouette, of which he could make out exasperatingly little but the shape of a close bonnet. “I am sure my wife will have particular pleasure in seeing you. I beg you to let me fetch her.” The lady--there was no mistaking a certain refinement in the voice, even in that hurried whisper--was evidently agitated; but she said nothing as Lauriston retreated towards the door. He crossed the hall to call his wife, scarcely leaving the door of the housekeeper’s room out of sight as he did so. But in that moment when his eyes were not upon it, the mysterious stranger found means to escape; for when Nouna flew down and rushed into the small apartment at her husband’s bidding, there was no one for her to see but Mrs. Benfield, who, much perturbed and grey about the face, explained that her friend, being a nervous woman, had not dared to face the ordeal of a personal introduction to the young lady. George said nothing, and let his wife wander away again without further explanation, thinking that after all the one small bit of knowledge he had gained he had better at present keep to himself. He knew by the unmistakable evidence of the voice that he had just seen and spoken with Nouna’s mother. CHAPTER XVII. George Lauriston was not allowed to make much of his small discovery that Nouna’s mother was not so far off as she wished it to be believed. The very morning after his meeting with the strange lady in the housekeeper’s room he received a private communication to the effect that Madame di Valdestillas had run over to England from Paris on purpose to see in the flesh the man upon whom her daughter’s happiness depended; she had not dared to show herself to Nouna lest her darling should be overwhelmed at the shortness of her visit, and ply her with prayers which it would be impossible to resist and cruel to her invalid husband to grant. She had seen, so she declared, generosity and all noble qualities imprinted in her son-in-law’s face, and she begged him to open his heart to receive her as his mother as well as Nouna’s, when, at two or three months’ time at farthest, she would induce her husband to settle permanently in England, so that she might be near her children.