vial necessities of the situation was Mrs.
Glenarm. She good-humoredly put an end to the embarrassment--which the
shy visitor appeared to feel acutely--by speaking first.

"I am afraid the servants have not told you?" she said. "Mrs. Delamayn
has gone out."

"I beg your pardon--I have not called to see Mrs. Delamayn."

Mrs. Glenarm looked a little surprised. She went on, however, as amiably
as before.

"Mr. Delamayn, perhaps?" she suggested. "I expect him here every
moment."

Anne explained again. "I have just parted from Mr. Delamayn." Mrs.
Glenarm opened her eyes in astonishment. Anne proceeded. "I have come
here, if you will excuse the intrusion--"

She hesitated--at a loss how to end the sentence. Mrs. Glenarm,
beginning by this time to feel a strong curiosity as to what might be
coming next, advanced to the rescue once more.

"Pray don't apologize," she said. "I think I understand that you are
so good as to have come to see _me._ You look tired. Won't you take a
chair?"

Anne could stand no longer. She took the offered chair. Mrs. Glenarm
resumed her place on the music-stool, and ran her fingers idly over the
keys of the piano. "Where did you see Mr. Delamayn?" she went on. "The
most irresponsible of men, except when he has got his fiddle in his
hand! Is he coming in soon? Are we going to have any music? Have you
come to play with us? Mr. Delamayn is a perfect fanatic in music, isn't
he? Why isn't he here to introduce us? I suppose you like the classical
style, too? Did you know that I was in the music-room? Might I ask your
name?"

Frivolous as they were, Mrs. Glenarm's questions were not without their
use. They gave Anne time to summon her resolution, and to feel the
necessity of explaining herself.

"I am speaking, I believe, to Mrs. Glenarm?" she began.

The good-humored widow smiled and bowed graciously.

"I have come here, Mrs. Glenarm--by Mr. Delamayn's permission--to ask
leave to speak to you on a matter in which you are interested."

Mrs. Glenarm's many-ringed fingers paused over the keys of the piano.
Mrs. Gle narm's plump face turned on the stranger with a dawning
expression of surprise.

"Indeed? I am interested in so many matters. May I ask what _this_
matter is?"

The flippant tone of the speaker jarred on Anne. If Mrs. Glenarm's
nature was as shallow as it appeared to be on the surface, there was
little hope of any sympathy establishing itself between them.

"I wished to speak t