He twirled his thumbs. "But let me ask, what may your full name be?" "Bianca Cara." "Hum! Ha! Most becoming. And how young are you?" Well, I like that! thought Cassy, who answered: "Twenty-one." Dunwoodie crossed his legs. "You think me an impertinent old man. I don't mean to be impertinent. I take a great interest in you." "Very good of you, I'm sure." "Not at all. Is your grandmother living?" "For heaven's sake! You did not know her, did you?" "No, but I stand ready to take her place." "You would find it difficult. She is buried in Portugal." "The place of your grandfather then, the place of any one whom you can trust." "But why?" "Well, let me ask. What are your plans?" "My plans? Mr. Jones asked me that. I have a sort of a voice and I am looking for an engagement. But the season is ending. Then too I am told I ought to change my name. I won't do it." "Hum! Ha! But it appears that you have." He's crazy too, thought Cassy, who said: "I don't know what you are talking about." Dunwoodie extracted his towel. "Why, my dear young lady, you are Mrs. Paliser." Cassy flushed. "I am nothing of the kind. I don't know how you got such an idea." Dunwoodie, quite as though he were doing some hard thinking, folded and refolded that towel which was his handkerchief. "Yet you married Montagu Paliser, Jr., did you not?" "Not at all. That is I thought I did, but the man who performed the ceremony was a gardener." "Dear me! Is it possible! And where was this?" What is it to you? thought Cassy. "At Paliser Place, if you must know." "And when did it occur?" "Really, Mr. Dunwoodie, I can't see why you are putting me through this examination, but if it is of any benefit to you, it happened just five days before he died." "Anybody about?" "Oh, yes. There were two other servants who enjoyed it very much. I heard them laughing and I don't blame them. It was a rare treat. A child would have laughed at it. All my fault too. I behaved like a ninny. But my great mistake was in telling my father. I would give the world if I had not. Won't you please send for Mr. Jones? As I told you, I don't know why I am here." Dunwoodie shook out the towel. "You must blame him then. He said you were Paliser's widow." "Well, you see I am not." "Yet you consented to be his wife." "Whose? Mr. Jones'?" "Paliser's, my dear young lady. However fictitious the ceremony, you consented to be Paliser's wife." "What if I did? It has nothing to do with it now." "Just a little, perhaps. Did you hear Jones say that he would renew his acquaintance with Swinburne?" "From the way he talks, one might think he knew him by heart."