Amongst his abstract brothers and sisters he had been looking always for his own concrete mate, and having found her and secured her, he was as a king newly anointed, whose crown had just been set upon his head. "Will you come?" said Patty to him, trying not to look too conscious of the change she saw in him. "It is time to have done with all our secrets now." "I agree with you," he replied. "And I will come with pleasure." Mrs. Duff-Scott was accordingly made to understand, with some difficulty, that the mystery which puzzled her had a deep significance, and that she was desired to take steps at once whereby she might be made acquainted with it. Much bewildered, but without relaxing her offended air--for she conceived that no explanation would make any difference in the central fact that Mr. Yelverton and Mr. Brion had taken precedence of her in the confidence of her own adopted daughters--she returned to her carriage, all the little party following meekly at her heels. The girls were put in first--even Elizabeth, who, insisting upon detaching herself from the assembling council, had to submit to be conveyed to Myrtle Street; and the two men, lifting their hats to the departing vehicle, were left on the footpath together. The lawyer was very grave, and slightly nervous and embarrassed. To his companion he had all the air of a man with a necessary but disagreeable duty to perform. "What is all this about?" Mr. Yelverton demanded with a little anxious irritation in his tone. "Nothing of any great consequence, is it?" "I--I'm afraid you will think it rather a serious matter," the lawyer replied, with hesitation. "Still," he added, earnestly, "if you are their friend, as I believe you are--knowing that they have no responsibility in the matter--you will not let it make any difference in your feeling for them--" "There is not the _faintest_ danger of that," Mr. Yelverton promptly and haughtily interposed. "I am sure of it--I am sure of it. Well, you shall know all in half an hour. If you will kindly find Major Duff-Scott--he has constituted himself their guardian, in a way, and ought to be present--I will just run round to my lodgings in Myrtle Street." "Are you going to fetch your son?" asked Mr. Yelverton, quickly. "Don't you think that, under the circumstances--supposing matters have to be talked of that will be painful to the Miss Kings--the fewer present the better?" "Certainly. I am not going to fetch my son, who, by the way, already knows all there is to know, but some documents relating to the affair, which he keeps in his strong-box for safety. Major Duff-Scott is the only person whose presence we require, since--" "Since what?" Mr. Brion was going to say, "Since your solicitors are not at hand," but checked himself. "Never mind," he said, "never mind. I cannot say any more now."