"She perhaps thought it impossible at first; but I don't see it so. She has been moved, I should say, by a sense of faithfulness to the dead. I don't think--I can't think--that he will take it so seriously as she does. He will look at it from a man's point of view; he won't shrink from it as she did; besides, he'll see that it is no fault in her, that she's just as she always was, sweet, pure, and lovable. She herself will take it less seriously when she has time to think it over." "Yes," I agreed, striving to conceal from her the fact that I did not in the least understand. "No doubt of that. The first shock when she read the letter----" "The letter?" she broke in. "Which letter?" "But I thought you knew!" "I knew nothing of any letter," she said, her face suddenly white. "Yesterday morning," I said, "just as Miss Lawrence was going upstairs after looking at the decorations, a boy came to the door with a special-delivery letter from New York. It was addressed to her--marked 'Important, read at once.' She took it and came into this room, and it was here she learned this secret----" But Mrs. Lawrence was no longer listening. She was sitting there, staring straight before her, her face livid. "A letter!" she repeated hoarsely. "A letter! I don't understand. I thought she had been told--I thought that woman had told her--I was sure of it. Yes--that must have been it--I cannot be mistaken--the letter had nothing to do with it. It was that woman. She had waited all these years, and then----" There was a step at the door, and Lucy Kingdon's dark face appeared. She was going past, but at the sight of us, she hesitated, and then stopped on the threshold. "Did you call, ma'am?" she asked, shooting me at the same time a glance so venomous that I recoiled a little. "No!" said Mrs. Lawrence, and it seemed to me that there was abhorrence in the look she turned upon the other woman. "Yet stay," she added quickly. "Go to your sister. Tell her I wish to see her--here--at once." I saw the girl's start of surprise; she half-opened her lips to speak, then glanced at me again and closed them. "Very well, ma'am," she said, and left the room. Mrs. Lawrence turned to me, still breathing quickly under the stress of the emotion which shook her. "You must leave me to solve this mystery, Mr. Lester," she said rapidly, "by myself and in my own way. I must find who it is that has dared to meddle in my family affairs. I was prepared to forgive--but there are some things which can never be forgiven--however deeply one may pity----" She checked herself; perhaps she saw the intentness of my interest.