op at the first stationer's shop we pass, and ask to look at
the Directory. Are you going to pay Mr. Lismore a visit?"

"I am going to think about it."

II.

THE next day a clerk entered Mr. Lismore's private room at the office,
and presented a visiting-card. Mrs. Callender had reflected, and
had arrived at a decision. Underneath her name she had written these
explanatory words: "On important business."

"Does she look as if she wanted money?" Mr. Lismore inquired.

"Oh dear, no! She comes in her carriage."

"Is she young or old?"

"Old, sir."

To Mr. Lismore--conscious of the disastrous influence occasionally
exercised over busy men by youth and beauty--this was a recommendation
in itself. He said: "Show her in."

Observing the lady, as she approached him, with the momentary curiosity
of a stranger, he noticed that she still preserved the remains of
beauty. She had also escaped the misfortune, common to persons at her
time of life, of becoming too fat. Even to a man's eye, her dressmaker
appeared to have made the most of that favorable circumstance. Her
figure had its defects concealed, and its remaining merits set off to
advantage. At the same time she evidently held herself above the common
deceptions by which some women seek to conceal their age. She wore her
own gray hair; and her complexion bore the test of daylight. On entering
the room, she made her apologies with some embarrassment. Being the
embarrassment of a stranger (and not of a youthful stranger), it failed
to impress Mr. Lismore favorably.

"I am afraid I have chosen an inconvenient time for my visit," she
began.

"I am at your service," he answered a little stiffly; "especially if you
will be so kind as to mention your business with me in few words."

She was a woman of some spirit, and that reply roused her.

"I will mention it in one word," she said smartly. "My business
is--gratitude."

He was completely at a loss to understand what she meant, and he said so
plainly. Instead of explaining herself, she put a question.

"Do you remember the night of the eleventh of March, between five and
six years since?"

He considered for a moment.

"No," he said, "I don't remember it. Excuse me, Mrs. Callender, I have
affairs of my own to attend to which cause me some anxiety--"

"Let me assist your memory, Mr. Lismore; and I will leave you to your
affairs. On the date that I have referred to, you were on your way to
the railway-station at B