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Rh mysterious business with Mr. Romaine? Likely as not, blackmail."

Letty jumped as Farebrother said this; for at that moment the door opened and Madame de Fonblanque entered.

Within ten minutes after her introduction to Farebrother, Letty saw a subtile change in her. She exchanged her charming candor and frank personal conversation for the guarded manner of a woman who knows a good deal about this wicked world, and she conversed upon the safest and most general subjects. When the Colonel returned they all went in to supper, which boasted seven different kinds of bread, served by Dad Davy with his grandest flourishes. But the Colonel's delightful assumption that Madame de Fonblanque would be their guest for at least a month, and would probably return in the autumn, "when the climate of old Virginia, madam, is truly glorious and life-giving," did not meet with the same enthusiastic acceptance from Madame de Fonblanque as it had done at dinner.

The truth was, with Farebrother's keen eyes upon her, and his polite but guarded manner toward her, she was dealing with a different person from the innocent old Colonel and the