Even as the words were on her lips, at the hall door there came a knocking. She went red and white, despite the aids of beauty! She caught at a chair, as if desirous of having something to lean against. "Thank God!" Then, as if conscious of the incongruity of such words upon her lips, she put her hands up to her face. "Oh, I'm so glad he's come!" Some one outside had hold of the handle of the door. She uncovered her face. She touched her hair. She touched the bosom of her dress. She dropped into the chair by which she was standing. In an instant she was the picture of composure. The door opened to admit Mr. Haines. His appearance was a shock to Mrs. Carruth. She looked negligently round, as if indifferent who the new-comer might be, and then--she stared. "You!" There was something in the lady's intonation which was very far from being complimentary. She stood up, quivering with disappointment and with rage. "I thought I gave instructions that this afternoon I was not at home to visitors." Mr. Haines did not seem to be at all nonplussed. "That's what the young lady who opened the door told me. I said I would wait until you were. I will." Mr. Haines sat down--with every appearance of having come to stay. Mrs. Carruth looked at the clock, then at her watch, then at the gentleman upon the chair. The gentleman in question, with his head thrown back, was staring at the ceiling, as if quite unconscious of her neighbourhood. It seemed to be as much as the lady could do to retain her self-control. "I am sure, Mr. Haines, that you cannot wish to be rude. I have an appointment this afternoon which I regret will prevent my having the pleasure of receiving you." "I'm going to have my say. I'll say it afterwards, or I'll say it now. It's all the same to me." "What do you mean by you're going to have your say?" "If you're ready, I'll let it out. But don't mind me. Don't let me spoil your appointment. Keep anything you've got to keep." Mrs. Carruth seemed to be at a loss to know what to do. Her looks were eloquent witnesses as to what she would have done if she could. But, apparently, she did not see her way to do it. She temporised. "If there is anything of importance, Mr. Haines, which you wished to say to me, perhaps you will be so good as to say it as briefly as you can, now. Possibly it will not detain you, at the utmost, more than a quarter of an hour." "Possibly it will not. I rather reckon you'll have a word to say in that. It won't all be for me." Mr. Haines brought his eyes down to the level of the lady's face. He spread out his hands upon his knees. He looked at her very straight. "What I have to say may be said in about two words. It's just this--I've found my girl." Mrs. Carruth did not display any great amount of interest, but she did seem to be surprised. "Indeed! I am glad to hear it. I hope that she is well." "She is well. She's better than many of us ever will be. She's at rest." "At rest? How?"