Page:The time spirit; a romantic tale (IA timespiritromant00snaiiala).pdf/285

 His sister looked at him pityingly. "It is impossible to believe that," she said without bitterness.

"So I see. But it is my duty to convince you."

For a moment he fought a growing emotion, and then his mind suddenly made up, he pressed the button of the electric bell that was near his elbow.

V

The familar summons was answered by Harriet herself. As she came into the room her rather scared eyes were caught at once by the profile of the dowager. But the reception in store for her was far from being of the kind she had reason to expect, for which she had had too little time to prepare.

To begin with Lady Wargrave rose to receive her. And that stately and considered act was supplemented by the simple words of the Duke.

"She knows everything," he said from the depths of his invalid chair, without a suspicion of theatricality.

Harriet, all the color struck from her face, shrank back, a picture of horror and timidity.

"Sit down, my dear, and let us hold a little family council." That note of intimacy and affection was so strange in Charlotte's ear, that it hit her almost as hard as the previous words had hit the wife of his bosom. However, the two ladies sat, and the Duke with a nonchalance that hardly seemed credible, went on in a quietly domestic voice, as he turned to Harriet again. "We shall value your help and advice, if you feel inclined to give it, in this matter of Mary and the young man Dinneford."

At this amazing speech Lady Wargrave stirred un