Beyond the fact that she was a widow, Drelincourt knew nothing of her history or antecedents, and did not seek to know anything. He had accepted her, so to speak, as a legacy from his father, and had soon learned to like and respect her for herself. There was something about her self-contained character, with its reserve of quiet force, which appealed specially to him. She was the very woman--one out of a thousand--he told himself, for the peculiar post she occupied, and he was careful to treat her with every consideration. Some little time passed before Mr. Drelincourt spoke again. To Mrs. Jenwyn he seemed to be debating some point with himself. At length he said: "Contrary to what I had ventured to hope before they came together, my wife always seemed to be very fond of Anna, and to make much of her. That, at least, is how matters presented themselves to me. What is your opinion, Mrs. Jenwyn? You were in a position to observe things from a far more intimate point of view than I was." His eyes were fixed on the matron; she could not choose but answer him. Her dark, prominent brows came together for a moment; a little wave of color tinged her pale cheeks for a second or two. "A question so plainly put, Mr. Drelincourt, ought to be met by a plain answer. Is not that so?" "Why, certainly, Mrs. Jenwyn." "Now that Mrs. Drelincourt is unhappily no more, there seems to me no reason why I should any longer refrain from mentioning to you a certain conclusion which I could not help arriving at on the occasion of Mr. Guy Ormsby's visit at the Towers a few months ago." Mr. Drelincourt sat up in his chair. "Go on, please," was all he said. "To such an extent and so openly did Mrs. Drelincourt make it her business to throw Miss Anna and Mr. Guy together, that at length I could not help having my eyes opened to the ulterior object she had in view. What at first had been nothing more than suspicion was turned into certainty by a few words between brother and sister which I accidentally happened to overhear." "And that object was--" "The marriage--not just now, but after Miss Anna shall have come of age--of the two young people." It was not often that Drelincourt was betrayed into an expression of surprise, but he was on this occasion. "What!" he exclaimed. "Scheme to wed her brother to a girl mentally afflicted as my poor sister is? It would be nothing less than monstrous." "Mrs. Drelincourt, sir, professed to believe, with Dr. Pounceby, the London specialist, that Miss Anna would grow out of her affliction in the course of a few years." "An opinion, I am grieved to say, wholly opposed to that of an equally eminent man--Dr. Ferrers." "And then, sir, it behooves Mr. Guy Ormsby, as a younger son without expectations, to look out for a wife with money." "Why do you say that, Mrs. Jenwyn?" "I am merely repeating Mrs. Drelincourt's own words to her brother."