r away? Thank you. I think that's
right. Please do not speak to me until I speak, and do not be
disappointed if I tell you nothing."

For five minutes, no sound broke the silence in Mrs. Markham's
drawing-room, except the hiss of a light, quick breath and the intake
and outgo of a heavier, slower one. And so suddenly, with such
smothered intensity, that Norcross started in his seat, Mrs. Markham's
voice emitted the first quaver of a musical note. She held it for a
moment, before she began to hum over and over three bars of an old
tune--"Wild roamed an Indian maid, bright Alfaretta." Thrice she hummed
it, still sitting with her hand over her eyes.--"Wild roamed an Indian
maid--" Then silence. But now, the breath of Norcross was coming more
heavily, and the masses of his face had still further fallen. After an
interval, Mrs. Markham spoke, in a low, even tone:

"It is Lallie."

Another period of heavy silence.

"I cannot see her nor hear her speak. Martha, my control, is speaking
for her. But Martha shows me the picture of a child--a little girl in
an old-fashioned dress. And I think she is saying that name--Lallie."

The silence again, so that when Norcross moistened his dry lips with
his tongue the slight smack seemed like the crackle of a fire.

"I see it more clearly now and I understand. The child gave her that
name, but someone else used it for a love name. It was just between
those two." The rest came in scattered sentences, with long pauses
between--"I hear that song again--it was her favorite--I understand now
why it comes--she was singing it when--Yes, you are the man--when you
told her--She calls you Bobbert--and now I cannot see."

A bead of perspiration had appeared so suddenly on the forehead of
Norcross that it had the effect of bursting from a pore. He was on his
feet, was pacing the floor in his jerky little walk. When, after one
course of the drawing-room, he turned back, Mrs. Markham had taken her
hand from her eyes, and was facing him.

"Oh, why did you do that?" she asked. "It has its effect on me--you do
not know how much!" Her manner spoke a smothered irritation. "I shall
not see Lallie to-night. And she was very near."

As though something had clicked and fallen into place within him,
Norcross straightened and stiffened, controlled the relaxed muscles of
his face, flashed his eyes on Mrs. Markham.

"Might I ask some questions?" he said.

"You must sit quietly," she answered, "and thoug