dining table pushed on one side, and a small
one placed near the fire.

"I thought it would be more comfortable," she said, "as there are only
our two selves, just to sit here."

He thanked her with a look. It was a nice little dinner, and Mark, to
his surprise, ate it with an appetite. Except the cup of tea that he
had taken in the morning, and a glass of wine at midday, he had touched
nothing. Mrs. Cunningham was a woman of great tact, and by making him
talk of the steps that he intended to take to hunt down the assassin,
kept him from thinking.

"Thank you very much, Mrs. Cunningham," he said, when the dinner was
over. "I feel very much better."

"I have brought down my work," she said, "and will sit here while you
drink your wine and smoke a pipe. Millicent has gone to bed, completely
worn out, and it will be pleasanter for us both to sit here than to be
alone."

Mark gladly agreed to the proposal. She turned the conversation now to
India, and talked of her life there.

"I was not out there very long," she said. "I was engaged to my husband
when he first went out, and six years afterwards joined him there, and
we were married. Your uncle, who was a major of his regiment, gave me
away. My husband got his company six months afterwards, and was killed
three years later. My pension as his widow was not a large one, and
when your uncle offered me the charge of his daughter I was very glad to
accept it. He gave some idea of his plans for her. I thought they were
very foolish, but when I saw that his mind was thoroughly made up I did
not attempt to dissuade him. He said that when he came home to England
(and he had no idea when that would be) he should have me here, as head
of his establishment, and it would be given out that the child was his
ward. I hoped that he would alter his mind later on, but, as you know,
he never did."

"Well, of course, she will have to be told now," Mark said.

"Do you think so? It seems to me that it were better that she would go
as she is, at any rate, until she is twenty-one."

"That would be quite impossible," Mark said decidedly. "How could I
assume the position of master here? And even if I could, it would be a
strange thing indeed for me to be here with a girl the age of my cousin,
even with you as chaperon. You must see yourself that it would be quite
impossible."

"But how could she live here by herself?"

"I don't think she could live here by herself," Mark said, "especia