“Carr,” said Val, “I never told you the finale of that tragedy.  George Gordon of the mutiny, did turn up:  he lived and died in England.”

“No!”

“He died at Calne.  It was that poor woman’s son.”

Mr. Carr looked round for an explanation.  He knew her as the wife of clerk Gum, and sister to Hartledon’s housekeeper.  Val told him all, as the facts had come out to him.

“Pike always puzzled me,” he said.  “Disguised as he was with his black hair, his face stained with some dark juice, there was a look in him that used to strike some chord in my memory.  It lay in the eyes, I think.  You’ll keep these facts sacred, Carr, for the parents’ sake.  They are known only to four of us.”

“Have you told your wife yet?” questioned Mr. Carr, recurring to a different subject.

“No.  I could not, somehow, whilst the child lay dead in the house.  She shall know it shortly.”

“And what about dismissing the countess-dowager?  You will do it?”

“I shall be only too thankful to do it.  All my courage has come back to me, thank Heaven!”

The Countess-Dowager of Kirton’s reign was indeed over; never would he allow her to disturb the peace of his house again.  He might have to pension her off, but that was a light matter.  His intention was to speak to her in a few days’ time, allowing an interval to elapse after the boy’s death; but she forestalled the time herself, as Val was soon to find.

Dinner that evening was a sad meal—­sad and silent.  The only one who did justice to it was the countess-dowager—­in a black gauze dress and white crepe turban.  Let what would betide, Lady Kirton never failed to enjoy her dinner.  She had a scheme in her head; it had been working there since the day of her grandson’s death; and when the servants withdrew, she judged it expedient to disclose it to Hartledon, hoping to gain her point, now that he was softened by sorrow.

“Hartledon, I want to talk to you,” she began, critically tasting her wine; “and I must request that you’ll attend to me.”

Anne looked up, wondering what was coming.  She wore an evening dress of black crepe, a jet necklace on her fair neck, jet bracelets on her arms:  mourning far deeper than the dowager’s.

“Are you listening to me, Val?”

“I am quite ready,” answered Val.

“I asked you, once before, to let me have Maude’s children, and to allow me a fair income with them.  Had you done so, this dreadful misfortune would not have overtaken your house:  for it stands to reason that if Lord Elster had been living somewhere else with me, he could not have caught scarlet-fever in London.”

“We never thought he did catch it,” returned Hartledon.  “It was not prevalent at the time; and, strange to say, none of the other children took it, nor any one else in the house.”

“Then what gave it him?” sharply uttered the dowager.