The Duchesse was playing impatiently with her glasses when I was
announced by the servant of ninety! Her face expressed some strong
feeling. I was not sure if it was tinged with displeasure or no. She
helped me to sit down, and then she began at once.

"Nicholas, explain yourself. You tell me you are engaged to your
secretary! So this has been going on all the time, and you have not told
me. I, who was your mother's oldest friend!"

"Dear Duchesse, you are mistaken, it has only just been settled. No one
was more surprised at my offer than Miss Sharp herself."

"You know her real name, Nicholas? And her family history? You have
guessed, of course, from my asking you for the twenty-five thousand
francs, that they were in some difficulty?"

"Yes, I know Alathea is the daughter of the Honorable Robert and Lady
Hilda Bulteel."

"She has told you all of the story, perhaps?--but you cannot know what
the money was for, because the poor child does not know it herself. It
is more just that I should inform you, since you are going to marry into
the family."

"Thank you, Duchesse."

She then began, and gave me a picture of her old friendship with Lady
Hilda, and of the dreadful calamity which had befallen in her going off
with Bobby Bulteel.