When they had found a pleasant spot to rest awhile before turning back, Waymark made up his mind to fulfil his promise to Julian. "It's rather strange," he said, "that you should have been asking me questions about Mrs. Casti. Since then I've discovered that you probably know her, or once did." Ida looked surprised. "Do you remember once having a schoolfellow called Harriet Smales?" "Is that _her_ name?" "It was, before her marriage." Ida became grave, and thought for some moments before speaking again. "Yes, I remember her," she said, "and not pleasantly." "You wouldn't care to renew her acquaintance then?" said Waymark, half glad, in spite of himself, that she spoke in this way. Ida asked, with earnestness, how he had made this discovery. Waymark hesitated, but at length told the truth. He explained that Mrs. Casti suffered from the want of companionship, and that he had mentioned Ida's name to Julian; whence the discovery. "Has _she_ been told about me?" asked Ida. "Nothing was to be said till I had spoken to you." Waymark paused, but presently continued in a more serious tone. In recurring to that conversation with Julian, his friend's trouble spoke strongly to him once more, and overcame selfish thoughts. "I said that I had come to know you by chance, and that--strange as it might sound--we were simply friends." He glanced for an instant at Ida; her eyes were turned to the ground. "You will believe me," he went on quickly, "when I tell you that I really said nothing more?" "I never doubt a word of yours," was Ida's quiet reply. "Casti was overjoyed at the thought of finding such a friend for his wife. Of course I told him that he must not certainly count either on your consent or on his wife's. Hers I thought to be perhaps more doubtful than yours." "Could I really be of any use to her," asked Ida, after a silence, "with so little free time as I have?" "Supposing she would welcome you, I really believe you could be of great use. She is a strange creature, miserably weak in body and mind. If you could get to regard this as a sort of good work you were called upon to undertake, you would very likely be little less than an angel of mercy to both of them. Casti is falling into grievous unhappiness--why, you will understand sufficiently if you come to know them." "Do you think she bears malice against me?" "Of that I know nothing. Casti said she had never spoken of you in that way. By-the-by, she still has a scar on her forehead, I often wondered how it came there." Ida winced. "What a little termagant you must have been!" exclaimed Waymark, laughing. "How hard it is to fancy you at that age, Ida.--What was the quarrel all about?" "I can't speak of it," she replied, in a low, sad voice. "It is so long ago; and I want to forget it." Waymark kept silence. "Do you wish me to be her friend?" Ida asked, suddenly looking up. "Certainly not if you dislike the thought."