"Mr. Grey and I will take great care of you. He shall act as my deputy while I am away, and when I come back I will take care of you. I will go now; I do not intend letting those tradespeople disturb anything for some time; I only want to show them what I mean to have done. For my sake, Maud, you will not brood? Promise me that." "I promise." "And you will show me where you would like the vases placed?" "Yes." He kissed her hand first and then her forehead, and left her. CHAPTER VI. THE TYRANNICAL PAST. When Mrs. Grant went out of the drawing-room she sought and found Mr. Grey in the waiting-room off the grand entrance-hall. She closed the door, and going up to the banker in haste said: "I want to have a few private words with you, Mr. Grey." "I am completely at your service, Mrs. Grant," answered the banker, in his most amiable manner. He looked worn and haggard to-day. The strain was telling on him. He now knew what sleepless nights were, and days haunted by the phantoms of memory, and slight rustling sounds of hideous import. He had learned to start suddenly and look hastily over his shoulder. It was not the dread of the hangman disordered his peace, but the faint rustle of a woman's dress, and the plunge into the darkness and the sense of suffocation under a burden, and the strange twanging of the arteries in his temples. "You know," began Mrs. Grant in an excited manner, "that I love Miss Midharst, and would do anything I could for her." Mrs. Grant had been very much shocked and excited by what had passed between Maud and her about Sir William, and the excitement still survived. "I am quite confident of that," answered the banker, with a grave look. He saw Mrs. Grant had something serious to say. "Will you promise me to keep what I say to yourself?" she asked quickly. He paused awhile and looked down. "My position is peculiar," he said. "Although I am not Miss Midharst's guardian in the usual signification of the word, I really feel bound by my promise to Sir Alexander to do all I can for her, and that being so I could not undertake to keep to myself anything which it might be to her advantage to disclose." He said this in his most deliberate manner, and with his eyes fixed solemnly on the face of the widow. "I know I may trust you, Mr. Grey. My only reason for asking you not to speak is, that if you mentioned my name in the matter I should be in an awkward position." "I promise you not to mention your name in connection with anything you may say to me." "That will do. I want to speak about Sir William Midharst." "The new baronet!" cried Mr. Grey, with a start and suddenly intensified interest. "Yes. Do you know anything of him?"