“There was the paper pasted on the inside of the cover, just as Mr Steinherz said, and I tried one of the corners with my nail to see if it was loose. Then the clerk’s wife, who had been in a great state of excitement ever since she heard what entry I wanted to see, cried out, ‘Why, that’s just what the lady did as come here in the autumn!’ When I said, ‘What lady?’ she nearly had a fit, and refused point-blank to tell me anything, saying she wished she had bitten her tongue off before the words slipped out. I tried the usual persuasive, and assured her that I had the strongest possible reasons for wishing good and not harm to Mr and Mrs Bertram, as she called them, and their descendants, and at last I got it out of her that the lady was not old, and not very young, not a regular foreigner, but not quite English, and dressed very smartly,--‘fine enough for a carriage,’ the old woman said, which is just what every one here says about these two girls whenever they go out walking. Then she told me what her voice was like, and I couldn’t doubt for a moment that it was Miss Logan.” “This is most interesting. When did you say it happened?” “About six months ago, as far as I could make out. Either just before or just after Mr Steinherz’s death, I should think.” “When she was in London, of course. Well, I am glad to have this cleared up. She told me a lame story of having been put on the track by some writing in an old prayer-book belonging to her mother, and said she had pieced together into a coherent whole things remembered from childhood and details picked up since.” “She told you!” “Yes; that is the piece of news I wondered whether you had heard. She knows the whole story, and has confided it to Félicia, and Félicia will be satisfied with nothing short of full rights and recognition. The story, as she told it, was less detailed than what I had heard from you, but it corresponded with it so exactly that I felt certain she could not have developed it in the way she made out. After this discovery of yours, I haven’t a doubt that she was listening, either when Mr Steinherz explained things to you, or when he made Hicks Félicia’s trustee--no, scarcely that, unless he read aloud to him the attested statement which was to be left in his charge. Well, we can’t prove it against her, but that’s the truth, I feel certain.” “And Félicia knows--the whole thing?” “The whole thing. Now, Usk, I am going to depart for once from my invariable rule, and give you a piece of good advice. There are two ways in which you can take this. Either you could throw yourself into Félicia’s view of the matter, and do everything in your power to help her press her claim--which is never likely to be established. Do you feel yourself debarred from such a course as that?” “Absolutely, by my repeated promise to Mr Steinherz.”