“I will do what I can. I will get another opinion from a man of long experience in mental cases. I have an old friend in the medical profession, a specialist, who has made mental disease the study of his life. He will give me any advice I want.” “You cannot do better than get his opinion of Mrs. Porter, if you are interested in her welfare.” “I am interested in all who are dependent upon me, and in her especially, on account of old associations.” * * * * * Lady Carmichael drove over to Cheriton after luncheon, upon one of those Sunday visits which she paid from time to time in deference to her father, albeit she could never approach the house without pain. She came in the useful family landau, which had carried the Misses Carmichael to tennis parties, dinners, and dances, before they married, and which now conveyed the nurse and baby on their visits to Cheriton. She came for what Lady Cheriton called a long afternoon, and she was received in the library, which was now the most used room in the house. No one cared to occupy that fatal drawing-room; and although it was always accessible, and there was a feint of daily occupation, its cold elegance was for the most part untenanted. “And over all there hung a cloud of fear.” To-day, for the first time, Theodore discovered numerous alterations in the arrangement of pictures and furniture in the hall. He had promised Cuthbert to show him the portraits of the Strangways, and most particularly that picture of the Squire’s three children, painted nearly forty years before; but he found that this picture, among others, had been removed, and that a fine Rhodian plate occupied its place on the dark oak panelling. He noticed the fact to his cousin. “I am sorry to miss the family group,” he said. “It was a really interesting picture.” “Interesting to you perhaps, who knew the history of the race,” answered Lord Cheriton, “but very uninteresting to a stranger. I think I’ve made an improvement over there. That plate is a splendid bit of colour, and lights up a dark corner. But that was not my motive. I wanted to make such trifling alterations as would change the aspect of the hall for Juanita, without any ostensible refurnishing. I have done the same thing in the library. The changes there are slight, but the room is not as it was when she and her husband occupied it.” “I should like to show Ramsay the Strangway portraits, if they are get-at-able.” “They are not just at present. The canvases were rotting, and I have sent them to London to be lined. You can show them to your friend by-and-by, when I get them back.”