He was shown into a large drawing-room, the fittings of which were still shrouded in summer coverings, preventing Peter from inferring much, even if he had had time to do so.  But the butler had scarcely left him when, with a well-bred promptness from which Peter might have drawn an inference, the rustle of a woman’s draperies was heard.  Rising, Peter found himself facing a tall, rather slender woman of between thirty-five and forty.  It did not need a second glance from even Peter’s untrained eye, to realize the suggestion of breeding in the whole atmosphere about her.  The gown was of the simplest summer material, but its very simplicity, and a certain lack of “latest fashion” rather than “old-fashionedness” gave it a quality of respectability.  Every line of the face, the set of the head, and even more the carriage of the figure, conveyed the “look of race.”

“I must thank you, Mr. Stirling,” she said, speaking deliberately, in a low, mellow voice, by no means so common then as our women’s imitation of the English tone and inflexion has since made it, “for suiting your time to mine on such short notice.”

“You were very kind,” said Peter, “to comply with my request.  Any time was convenient to me.”

“I am glad it suited you.”

Peter had expected to be asked to sit down, but, nothing being said, began his explanation.

“I am very grateful, Miss De Voe, for your note, and for the check.  I thank you for both.  But I think you probably sent me the latter through a mistake, and so I did not feel justified in accepting it.”

“A mistake?”

“Yes.  The papers made many errors in their statements.  I’m not a ’poor young lawyer’ as they said.  My mother is comfortably off, and gives me an ample allowance.”

“Yes?”

“And what is more,” continued Peter, “while they were right in saying that I paid some of the expenses of the case, yet I was more than repaid by my fees in some civil suits I brought for the relatives of the children, which we settled very advantageously.”

“Won’t you sit down, Mr. Stirling?” said Miss De Voe.  “I should like to hear about the cases.”

Peter began a very simple narrative of the matter.  But Miss De Voe interjected questions or suppositions here and there, which led to other explanations, and before Peter had finished, he had told not merely the history of the cases, but much else.  His mention of the two Dooley children had brought out the fact of their visit to his mother, and this had explained incidentally her position in the world.  The settlement of the cases involved the story of the visit to the brewer’s home, and Peter, to justify his action, added his interview with his pastor, Peter’s connection with the case compelled him to speak of his evenings in the “angle,” and the solitary life that had sent him there.  Afterwards, Peter was rather surprised at how much he had told.  He did not realize that a woman with tact and experience can, without making it evident, lead a man to tell nearly anything and everything he knows, if she is so minded.  If women ever really take to the bar seriously, may Providence protect the average being in trousers, when on the witness stand.