It is always a great help in cases requiring thought and argument and construction--because every good case is like a story in requiring construction--to consult the feminine mind; if you are interested in the owner, or tenant, of a certain mind, it makes the consultation all the better. Richard Woodroffe consulted Molly every day. By talking over the case again and again, and by looking at it in company, one becomes more critical and at the same time clearer in one's views. There were, as you know, many reasons why Richard should consult this young lady, apart from her undoubted intelligence. "Why, Molly," he asked--"why--I put it to your feminine perceptions--why was this good lady so profoundly moved by the mere sight of the fellow? She wasn't moved by the sight of me. Yet I am exactly like him, I believe. It was at the theatre. She was in a private box; he was one of a line of Johnnies in the stalls. She was so much affected that she had to leave the house. She met him again at Steele's dinner. She was affected in the same way. Why? She is presumed never to have seen the fellow before; she certainly has not seen him for twenty-four years. Why, I ask, was she so much affected? She tells me that the sight of him always affects her in exactly the same way--with the same mysterious yearning and longing and with a sadness indescribable. "Wait a minute. Hear me out. Is it his resemblance to a certain man--her first husband? But again, I am like him, and she does not yearn after me a bit. What can it be except an unknown sense--the maternal instinct--which is awakened in her? What is it but his own identity, which she alone can understand--with her child?" "Dick," said Molly, "it's a tremendous jump. Yet, of course----" "Of course. I knew you would agree with me. The intuitions--the conclusions--the insight of women are beyond everything. Molly, it is a blessed thing that you are retained in this case. The sight of you is to me a daily refresher; the look of you is a heavy fee; and the voice of you is an encouragement. Stand by me, Molly--and I will pull this half-brother of mine down from that bad eminence and ask him, when he stands beside me, with an entirely new and most distinguished company of cousins, how he feels, and what has become of his superiority. You shall introduce him to the pew-opener, and I will present him to the draper."