Nabby lingered. “Say,” she whispered, “you don’t cal’late she’s come to talk about what Millard went to Denboro along with Cap’n Foster for, do you? Well, if that is it, I hope she’ll tell the rest of us. My heavens to Betsy!” with a sudden burst of candor; “I ain’t had anything plague me so for I don’t know when. And neither has Varunas.... Yes, yes! I’ll fetch her right in.” Esther was in the library awaiting her aunt, when the latter appeared. Reliance’s greeting was cheerful and, so long as Mrs. Gifford remained in the room, her manner was composed. But after Nabby, having lingered as long as she dared, departed, that manner changed. “Esther,” she said, hurriedly, “I’ve come here to have a talk and it’s likely to be a long talk. Can’t we go somewhere where we can be sure nobody will hear us?” Esther nodded. “Come right up to my room,” she said. “Nobody will disturb us there.” Upstairs, in the pink room, she turned to her visitor. “Auntie,” she said, “it’s odd that you should have come here to see me this morning. I was just on the point of going down to see you.” Reliance looked at her quickly and keenly. “You were?” she asked. “Why?” “Because--well, because I felt that I must see you. I have heard-- Oh, I learned some things yesterday afternoon that--that-- Aunt Reliance, I doubt if I slept an hour all night. I was coming to you for advice--and help. Oh, I am so glad you are here.” She was on the verge of tears. Reliance put her arm about her shoulder. “I don’t know what you’ve heard, dearie,” she said. “But if it is a patch on what _I_ have heard--and found out--since ten o’clock last night, then I don’t wonder you haven’t slept.... Your Uncle Foster is away, of course?” “Yes. He is coming back from Boston on the eleven o’clock train. I wish he was here,” she added, with a sudden change of tone. “I want to see him even more than I do you.” Reliance bent forward to look into her face. “Esther,” she asked, “have you and your uncle had a fallin’ out?” “No ... not yet.” “Not yet?... Esther, what does that mean?” “It means-- Oh, never mind what it means! Perhaps I will tell you by and by. I shall--because I had made up my mind to. But you came here to tell me something. What is it?” Her aunt’s answer was prefaced by a troubled shake of the head. “I came here to have a talk with you,” she said. “Yes, and to tell you something--a lot of things. But if already you have heard something which makes you feel bitter towards your Uncle Foster, I--well, I don’t know. I almost wish I had waited until he was here and told you both together.”