Irene kept silence.

“He came down—­and we talked.  I am so glad to have any friend near me!  I told him how uncle felt.  Of course he will not come again ——­”

“Why not?  This is your house, not my father’s!”

“But poor mother couldn’t see him now—­wouldn’t know him.  I promised to send him news frequently.  I’m going to telegraph this morning.”

“Of course,” said Irene, with emphasis.  “He must understand that you have no such feeling——­”

“Oh, he knows that!  He knows I am grateful to him—­very grateful ——­”

She broke down again, and sobbed.  Irene, without speaking, put her arms around the girl and kissed her cheek.

Dr. Derwent and his daughter met again at luncheon.  Afterwards, Irene followed into the library.

“I wish to ask you something, father.  When you and Arnold spoke about this hateful thing, did you tell him, unmistakably, that aunt was slandered?”

“I told him that I myself had no doubt of it.”

“Did he seem—­do you think that he doubts?”

“Why?”

Irene kept silence, feeling that her impression was too vague to be imparted.

“Try,” said her father, “to dismiss the matter from your thoughts.  It doesn’t concern you.  You will never hear an allusion to it from Jacks.  Happen what may”—­his voice paused, with suggestive emphasis—­“you have nothing to do with it.  It doesn’t affect your position or your future in the least.”

As she withdrew, Irene was uneasily conscious of altered relations with her father.  The change had begun when she wrote to him announcing her engagement; since, they had never conversed with the former freedom, and the shadow now hanging over them seemed to chill their mutual affection.  For the first time, she thought with serious disquiet of the gulf between old and new that would open at her marriage, of all she was losing, of the duties she was about to throw off—­duties which appeared so much more real, more sacred, than those she undertook in their place.  Her father’s .widowerhood had made him dependent upon her in a higher degree than either of them quite understood until they had to reflect upon the consequences of parting; and Irene now perceived that she had dismissed this consideration too lightly.  She found difficulty in explaining her action, her state of mind, her whole self.  Was it really only a few weeks ago?  To her present mood, what she had thought and done seemed a result of youth and inexperience, a condition long outlived.

When she had sat alone for half an hour in the drawing-room, Eustace joined her.  He said their father had gone out.  They talked of indifferent things till bedtime.

In the morning, the servant who came into Irene’s room gave her a note addressed in the Doctor’s hand.  It contained the news that Mrs. Hannaford had died before daybreak.  Dr. Derwent himself did not appear till about ten o’clock, when he arrived together with ills niece.  Olga had been violently hysterical; it seemed the wisest thing to bring her to Bryanston Square; the change of surroundings and Irene’s sympathy soon restored her to calm.