something which Mrs Finn was to suggest. He could hardly have been
so requested, and that in terms of such warm affection, had it
been Mrs Finn's intention to ask him to desist altogether from his
courtship. This woman was regarded by Lady Mary as her mother's
dearest friend. It was therefore incumbent on him now to induce
her to believe in him as the Duchess had believed.

He knocked at the door of Mrs Finn's little house in Park Lane a
few minutes before the time appointed, and found himself alone
when he was shown into the drawing-room. He had heard much of this
lady though he had never seen her, and had heard much also of her
husband. There had been a kind of mystery about her. People did
not quite understand how it was that she had been so intimate with
the Duchess, nor why the late Duke had left to her an enormous
legacy, which as yet had never been claimed. There was supposed,
too, to have been something especially in her marriage with her
present husband. It was believed also that she was very rich. The
rumours of all these things together had made her a person of
note, and Tregear, when he found himself alone in the drawing-
room, looked round about him as though a special interest was to
be attached to the belongings of such a woman. It was a pretty
room, somewhat dark, because the curtains were almost closed
across the windows, but furnished with a pretty taste, and now, in
these early April days, filled with flowers.

'I have to apologise, Mr Tregear, for keeping you waiting,' she
said as she entered the room.

'I fear I was before my time.'