Hewson's note was from Mrs. Rock, asking him to breakfast with her at the
Walholland the next morning. She said that they were just off the
steamer, which had got in late, and they had started so suddenly from
London that she had not had time to write and have her apartment opened.
She came to business in the last sentence where she said that Miss
Hernshaw joined her in kind remembrances, and wished her to say that he
must not fail them, or if he could not come to breakfast, to let them
know at what hour during the day he would be kind enough to call; it was
very important they should see him at the earliest possible moment.

Hewson instantly decided that this summons was related to the affair of
his apparition, without imagining how or why, and when Miss Hernshaw met
him, and almost before she could say that Mrs. Rock would be down in a
moment, began with it, he made no feint of having come for anything else.

[Illustration: "'WHY, THERE ISN'T ANY PUNISHMENT SEVERE ENOUGH FOR A
CRIME LIKE THAT'"]

As he entered the door of Mrs. Rock's parlor, where the breakfast table
was laid, the girl came swiftly toward him, with the air of having turned
from watching for him at the window. "Well, what do you think of me?" she
demanded as soon as she had got over Mrs. Rock's excuses for having her
receive him. He had of course to repeat, "What do I think of you?" but he
knew perfectly what she meant.

She disdained to help him pretend that he did not know. "It was I who
told that horrible woman about your experience at St. Johnswort. I
didn't dream that she was an interviewer, but that doesn't excuse me,
and I am willing to take any punishment for my--I don't know what to call
it--mischief."