circumstances, you will presently discover. As to the means
by which she found her way to my office, I may remind you that any
directory would give her the necessary information.

"Miss Westerfield's object was to tell me, in the first place, that her
guilty life with you was at an end. She has left your protection--not to
return to it. I was sorry to see (though she tried to hide it from me)
how keenly she felt the parting. You have been dearly loved by two sweet
women, and they have thrown their hearts away on you--as women will.

"Having explained the circumstances so far, Miss Westerfield next
mentioned the motive which had brought her to my office. She asked if I
would inform her of Mrs. Norman's address.

"This request, I confess, astonished me.

"To my mind she was, of all persons, the last who ought to contemplate
communicating in any way with Mrs. Norman. I say this to you; but I
refrained from saying it to her. What I did venture to do was to ask for
her reasons. She answered that they were reasons which would embarrass
her if she communicated them to a stranger.

"After this reply, I declined to give her the information she wanted.

"Not unprepared, as it appeared to me, for my refusal, she asked next if
I was willing to tell her where she might find your brother, Mr. Randal
Linley. In this case I was glad to comply with her request. She could
address herself to no person worthier to advise her than your brother.
In giving her his address in London, I told her that he was absent on
a visit to some friends, and that he was expected to return in a week's
time.

"She thanked me, and rose to go.

"I confess I was interested in her. Perhaps I thought of the time when
she might have been as dear to her father as my own daughters are to
me. I asked if her parents were living: they were dead. My next
question was: 'Have you any friends in London?' She answered: 'I have
no friends.' It was said with a resignation so very sad in so young
a creature that I was really distressed. I ran the risk of offending
her--and asked if she felt any embarrassment in respect of money. She
said: 'I have some small savings from my salary when I was a governess.'
The change in her tone told me that she was alluding to the time of her
residence at Mount Morven. It was impossible to look at this friendless
girl, and not feel some anxiety about the lodging which she might have
chosen in such a place as London. She had fortunately c