“Yes, sir,” said the footman in answer to his inquiry, and he at once proceeded to show Gerard upstairs into the drawing-room, where the young man found himself face to face not with Rachel, but her younger sister, Lilian. The girl was looking charming, her fair hair, which she still wore tied with a large bow of ribbon at the back of the neck and hanging down her back, shone in the glare of the electric light like gold; while the simple frock of pale pink cotton and the schoolgirl black sailor hat with a pale pink ribbon, suited her girlish face and figure to perfection. She greeted the visitor with frank pleasure. “I’m so glad to see you again,” said she. “I know how much Rachel likes you, and how kind you were at the Academy. And you like Rachel, don’t you? That is quite reason enough for me to be glad to see you.” There was something in this speech which made Gerard’s heart leap up. “Rachel likes you.” He was sure that there was no deceit, no pretense, about this charming schoolgirl, that what she said came naturally to her lips from her own knowledge, and he was touched and surprised to hear the confidence with which she spoke. It was almost as if she looked upon Gerard as a sort of possession of the family, to be greeted and treated as such. “I’ve been waiting here ever so long,” said she, with a sigh; “and I am so glad you’ve come to talk to me! Lady Jennings is out, and so is Rachel, and I’ve been amusing myself as well as I could with the papers the man brought me, and with looking out of the window. But it’s so dull, and such a shame to have to waste one’s time like that when I so seldom come to town!” “Didn’t they expect you?” asked Gerard, in surprise. A sort of hesitancy appeared in the girl’s manner. “Why no,” she said. “Something happened this morning that seemed odd to Miss Graham--that’s the schoolmistress. A gentleman called to see me, and asked questions about Rachel, and didn’t give his name; and as one of the junior mistresses was coming up, Miss Graham said I had better come too, and see Rachel and Lady Jennings about it.” A horrible fear, of a kind to which he was now getting used in matters that concerned Rachel Davison, assailed his heart at these words. Who could the mysterious gentleman be who had come on such a strange errand, not to Rachel herself, but to her younger sister, a mere schoolgirl? “You did quite right in coming,” he said, after a short pause. “It does seem an odd sort of thing to happen.”