“Refused to see him!”

“She has told me since that she never intends to see him.”

“Never intends to see Rowan again!” he repeated the incredible words, “not see Rowan again!”

“She says we are to drop him from the list of our acquaintances.”

“Ah!” he cried with impetuous sadness, “they must not quarrel!  They must not!”

“But they have quarrelled,” she replied, revealing her own anxiety.  “Now they must be reconciled.  That is why I come to you.  I am Isabel’s guardian; you were Rowan’s.  Each of us wishes this marriage.  Isabel loves Rowan.  I know that; therefore it is not her fault.  Therefore it is Rowan’s fault.  Therefore he has said something or he has done something to offend her deeply.  Therefore if you do not know what this Is, you must find out.  And you must come and tell me.  May I depend upon you?”

He had become grave.  At length he said:  “I shall go straight to Rowan and ask him.”

“No!” she cried, laying her hand heavily on his arm, “Isabel bound me to secrecy.  She does not wish this to be known.”

“Ah!” he exclaimed, angry at being entrapped into a broken confidence, “then Miss Isabel binds me also:  I shall honor her wish,” and he rose.

She kept her seat but yawned so that he might notice it.  “You are not going?”

“Yes, I am going.  I have stayed too long already.  Good night!  Good night!” He spoke curtly over his shoulders as he hurried down the steps.

She had forgotten him before he reached the street, having no need just then to keep him longer in mind.  She had threshed out the one grain of wheat, the single compact little truth, that she wanted.  This was the certainty that Judge Morris, who was the old family lawyer of the Merediths, and had been Rowan’s guardian, and had indeed known him intimately from childhood, was in ignorance of any reason for the present trouble; otherwise he would not have said that he should go to Rowan and ask the explanation.  She knew him to be incapable of duplicity; in truth she rather despised him because he had never cultivated a taste for the delights and resources of hypocrisy.

Her next step must be to talk at once with the other person vitally interested—­Rowan’s mother.  She felt no especial admiration for that grave, earnest, and rather sombre lady; but neither did she feel admiration for her sterling knife and fork:  still she made them serviceable for the ulterior ends of being.

Her plan then embraced a visit to Mrs. Meredith in the morning with the view of discovering whether she was aware of the estrangement, and if aware whether she would in any unintentional way throw light upon the cause of it.  Moreover—­and this was kept clearly in view—­there would be the chance of meeting Rowan himself, whom she also determined to see as soon as possible:  she might find him at home, or she might encounter him on the