n!" she cried. "Oh, Stella, you don't know how you have frightened me!
Good heavens, you look frightened yourself! From what wretches have I
rescued you? Take my smelling bottle, and tell me all about it."

The fresh air, and the reassuring presence of her old friend, revived
Stella. She was able to describe her interview with the General's
family, and to answer the inevitable inquiries which the narrative
called forth. Lady Loring's last question was the most important of the
series: "What are you going to do about Romayne?"

"I am going to write to him the moment we get home."

The answer seemed to alarm Lady Loring. "You won't betray me?" she said.

"What do you mean?"

"You won't let Romayne discover that I have told you about the duel?"

"Certainly not. You shall see my letter before I send it to be
forwarded."

Tranquilized so far, Lady Loring bethought herself next of Major Hynd.
"Can we tell him what you have done?" her ladyship asked.

"Of course we can tell him," Stella replied. "I shall conceal nothing
from Lord Loring, and I shall beg your good husband to write to the
Major. He need only say that I have made the necessary inquiries, after
being informed of the circumstances by you, and that I have communicated
the favorable result to Mr. Romayne."

"It's easy enough to write the letter, my dear. But it's not so easy to
say what Major Hynd may think of you."

"Does it matter to me what Major Hynd thinks?"

Lady Loring looked at Stella with a malicious smile. "Are you equally
indifferent," she said, "to what Romayne's opinion of your conduct may
be?"

Stella's color rose. "Try to be serious, Adelaide, when you speak to
me of Romayne," she answered, gravely. "His good opinion of me is the
breath of my life."

An hour later, the important letter to Romayne was written. Stella
scrupulously informed him of all that had happened--with two necessary
omissions. In the first place, nothing was said of the widow's reference
to her son's death, and of the effect produced by it on his younger
brother. The boy was simply described as being of weak intellect, and
as requiring to be kept under competent control. In the second place,
Romayne was left to infer that ordinary motives of benevolence were the
only motives, on his part, known to Miss Eyrecourt.

The letter ended in these lines:

"If I have taken an undue liberty in venturing, unasked, to appear as
your representative, I can only plead that I mean