"Nathan would have given him a job--eh? How wonderful he was at finding work for people. And what does Cora think of it all?": "She's a very secret girl." "And Heathman?" "Heathman be going to make my home for me--somewhere. 'Tisn't decided where we go." "You leave Undershaugh, then?" "Yes." "Nathan wouldn't have wished that, I'm sure." "We were to have stopped, but the new owner wants to raise the rent to nearly as much again." "What used you to pay?" She hesitated. Like many people whose position has forced them into the telling of countless lies, she was still tender of truth in trifles. "No matter," he said. "I can guess the figure very easily, and nought's the shape of it." A sinister foreboding flashed through her mind. It seemed impossible to suppose such an innuendo innocent. Miss Gollop had said many offensive things concerning her after Nathan's death; but few had believed them, and still fewer shown the least interest in the subject. It was absurd to suppose that Humphrey Baskerville would trouble his head with such a rumour. "Your brother was generous to all," she answered. "Why, he was. And if charity shouldn't begin at home, where should it?" "He was very generous to all," she repeated. "I've been seeing Mr. Popham to-day." "He's a true kind man, and wishful to do what he can. The rent asked now for Undershaugh is too high, even in the good state we've made it. So I've got to leave." "'Twill be a wrench." "Yes, indeed." "But not such a bad one as his death?" "That's true." He probed her. "Never to see him come down your path with his bustling gait; never to hear the laughter of the man. You held his hand when he went out of life. He loved you--'twas the master passion of him." A flush of colour leapt and spread over her face. She gasped but said nothing. "A cruel thing that he left you as he did." "What was I?" she began, alert and ready to fight at once and crush this suspicion. "What are you saying? We were nothing----" He held up his hand. "A fool's trick--a lifelong fool's trick to hide it--a cruel, witless thing--a wrong against generations unborn--scandalous--infamous--beyond belief in a sane man." "I don't understand you. God's my----" "Hush--hush! I'm not an enemy. You needn't put out your claws; you needn't lie to me. You needn't break oaths to me. It's a secret still; but I know it--only me. You were his mistress, Priscilla Lintern--his mistress and the mother of his children." "He never told you that." "Not he." "Who did tell you?" "Cora told me." "She'd rather have----"