"Oh, you ask me that! It is a letter you are looking for. Then perhaps I may be so fortunate as to assist you. I have just found a letter lying here addressed to you. As it lay with face open I could not but read it. See here!" A square of thick scented notepaper filled with a dashing black caligraphy shook before Geoffrey's eyes. It was Mrs. May's writing beyond a doubt. Geoffrey flushed slightly as he took the note. "Read it," Vera said quietly, "read it aloud." Geoffrey did so. It struck him now--it had never occurred to him before--that the writer was slightly caressing in her manner of phrasing. There was a suggestion of something warmer and more personal than the stereotyped lines implied. "So this is the Alton where you are going to-night?" Vera went on. "Who is the woman? How long have you known her?" The quick blood came flaming to Geoffrey's face. He had never seen Vera hard and cold like this before. It was a woman and not a girl who was speaking now. Geoffrey resented the questions; they came as a teacher addresses a child. "I cannot tell you," he said. "It has to do with the family secret." "And you expect me to believe this, Geoffrey?" "Of course I do," Geoffrey cried. "Did you ever know me tell you a lie? And, after all the years we have been together, you are going to be jealous of the first woman who comes along! Have I been mistaken in you, Vera?" The girl's beautiful eyes filled with tears. She had been sorely vexed and hurt, far more hurt than she cared Geoffrey to know. For it seemed to her that he had wilfully deceived her, that he was going to see this creature of whom he was secretly ashamed, that he had lied so that he could seek her company without suspicion in the minds of others. "If you give me your word of honor," Vera faltered, "that you----" "No, no," Geoffrey cried. "I merely state the facts and you may believe them or not as you please. Who Mrs. May is I decline to say. How I became, acquainted with her I also decline to explain. Suffice it that she is Mrs. May, and that she has rooms at Jessop's farm." "And that is all you are going to tell me, Geoffrey?" "Yes, Vera. If you have lost faith in me----" "Oh, no, no! Don't say such cruel things, Geoff. Whom have I beyond my parents and you in the whole world! And when I found that letter, when I knew what you said about Alton was--was not true----" She paused unable to proceed. Her little hands went out imploringly and Geoffrey caught them in his own. He drew her to his side and gazed into her eyes. "Darling," he whispered, "you know that I love you?" "Yes, dear, it was foolish of me to doubt it." "I love you now and always. I can never change. I did not intend to tell you about this woman because it was all part of the secret. The wise man among us has said it, and his word is law. I am speaking of Uncle Ralph." Vera nodded with a brighter glance. Had not she a secret in common with Ralph?