housekeeper, he was too
excited to be conscious of it. To him this woman seemed more than
this.

"We were talking about the past," said he, kindly. "We are very old
friends. We were telling each other the events of our lives. We
parted early in life, and have not seen one another for many years.
We also were arranging some business matters."

Mrs. Hart listened eagerly, and then remained silent for a long time.

"His old friend," she murmured at last; "his old friend! Did you find
him much altered?"

"Not more than I expected," replied the General, wonderingly. "His
secluded life here has kept him from the wear and tear of the world.
It has not made him at all misanthropical or even cynical. His heart
is as warm as ever. He spoke very kindly of you."

Mrs. Hart started, and her hands involuntarily clutched each other
more convulsively. Her head fell forward and her eyes dropped.

"What did he say of me?" she asked, in a scarce audible voice, and
trembling visibly as she spoke.

The General noticed her agitation, but it caused no surprise, for
already his whole power of wondering was exhausted. He had a vague
idea that the poor old thing was troubled for fear she might from
some cause lose her place, and wished to know whether the Earl had
made any remarks which might affect her position. So with this
feeling he answered in as cheering a tone as possible:

"Oh, I assure you, he spoke of you in the highest terms. He told me
that you were exceedingly kind to Guy, and that you were quite
indispensable to himself."

"'Kind to Guy'--'indispensable to him,'" she repeated in low tones,
while tears started to her eyes. She kept murmuring the words
abstractedly to herself, and for a few moments seemed quite
unconscious of the General's presence. He still watched her, on his
part, and gradually the thought arose within him that the easiest
solution for all this was possible insanity. Insanity, he saw, would
account for every thing, and would also give some reason for his own
strange feelings at the sight of her. It was, he thought, because he
had seen this dread sign of insanity in her face--that sign only less
terrible than that dread mark which is made by the hand of the King
of Terrors. And was she not herself conscious to some extent of this?
he thought. She had herself alluded to her eccentricity. Was she not
disturbed by a fear that he had noticed this, and, dreading a
disclosure, had come to him to explain? To h