please follow me, Miss Deane?" he said, with a singular air of
deference. "Sir Francis is quite alone and will see you at once."

Mary's blue eyes opened in amazement.

"Sir Francis----!" she stammered. "I don't quite understand----"

"This way," said Mr. Bulteel, escorting her out of his own room along
the passage to the door which she had before seen labelled with the name
of "Sir Francis Vesey"--then catching the startled and appealing glance
of her eyes, he added kindly: "Don't be alarmed! It's all right!"

Thereupon he opened the door and announced--

"Miss Deane, Sir Francis."

Mary looked up, and then curtsied with quite an "out-of-date" air of
exquisite grace, as she found herself in the presence of a dignified
white-haired old gentleman, who, standing near a large office desk on
which the papers she had brought lay open, was wiping his spectacles,
and looking very much as if he had been guilty of the womanish weakness
of tears. He advanced to meet her.

"How do you do!" he said, uttering this commonplace with remarkable
earnestness, and taking her hand kindly in his own. "You bring me sad
news--very sad news! I had not expected the death of my old friend so
suddenly--I had hoped to see him again--yes, I had hoped very much to
see him again quite soon! And so you were with him at the last?"

Mary looked, as she felt, utterly bewildered.

"I think," she murmured--"I think there must be some mistake,--the
papers I brought here were for Mr. Bulteel----"

"Yes--yes!" said Sir Francis. "That's quite right! Mr. Bulteel is my
confidential clerk--and the packet was addressed to him. But a note
inside requested that Mr. Bulteel should bring all the documents at once
to me, which he has done. Everything is quite correct--quite in order.
But--I forgot! You do not know! Please sit down--and I will endeavour to
explain."

He drew up a chair for her near his desk so that she might lean her arm
upon it, for she looked frightened. As a matter of fact he was
frightened himself. Such a task as he had now to perform had never
before been allotted to him. A letter addressed to him, and enclosed in
the packet containing Helmsley's Last Will and Testament, had explained
the whole situation, and had fully described, with simple fidelity, the
life his old friend had led at Weircombe, and the affectionate care with
which Mary had tended him,--while the conclusion of the letter was
worded in terms of touching farewell.