‘Yes, it’s all over—­and for a good reason.’

The lady’s curiosity was still more provoked.

‘No,’ she exclaimed laughingly, ’I am not going to ask the reason.  That would be presuming too far on friendship.’

Crewe fixed his eyes on a corner of the room, and seemed to look there for a solution of some difficulty.  When the silence had lasted more than a minute, he began to speak slowly and awkwardly.

’I’ve half a mind to—­in fact, I’ve been thinking that you ought to know.’

‘The good reason?’

’Yes.  You’re the only one that could stand in the place of a mother to her.  And I don’t think she ought to be living alone, like she is, with no one to advise and help her.’

‘I have felt that very strongly,’ said Mrs. Damerel.  ’The old servant who is with her can’t be at all a suitable companion—­that is, to be treated on equal terms.  A very strange arrangement, indeed.  But you don’t mean that you thought less well of her because she is living in that way?’

‘Of course not.  It’s something a good deal more serious than that.’

Mrs. Damerel became suddenly grave.

‘Then I certainly ought to know.’

’You ought.  I think it very likely she would have been glad enough to make a friend of you, if it hadn’t been for this—­this affair, which stood in the way.  There can’t be any harm in telling you, as you couldn’t wish anything but her good.’

‘That surely you may take for granted.’

’Well then, I have an idea that she’s trying to earn money because some one is getting all he can out of her—­leaving her very little for herself; and if so, it’s time you interfered.’

The listener was so startled that she changed colour.

‘You mean that some man has her in his power?’

’If I’m not mistaken, it comes to that.  But for her father’s will, she would have been married long ago, and—­she ought to be.’

Having blurted out these words, Crewe felt much more at ease.  As Mrs. Damerel’s eyes fell, the sense of sexual predominance awoke in him, and he was no longer so prostrate before the lady’s natural and artificial graces.

‘How do you know this?’ she asked, in an undertone.

‘From some one who had it from Miss.  Lord herself.’

‘Are you quite sure that it isn’t a malicious falsehood?’

’As sure as I am that I sit here.  I know the man’s name, and where he lives, and all about him.  And I know where the child is at nurse.

‘The child?—­Oh—­surely—­never!’

A genuine agitation possessed her; she had a frightened, pain-stricken look, and moved as if she must act without delay.

‘It’s nearly six months old,’ Crewe continued.  ’Of course that’s why she was away so long.’

’But why haven’t you told me this before?  It was your duty to tell me—­your plain duty.  How long have you known?’