," said Sophie, "and I will tell you
everything as you are eating. Don't mind me. You shall eat and drink,
and I will talk. I am Madam Gordeloup--Sophie Gordeloup. Ah! you know
the name now. Yes. That is me. Count Pateroff is my brother. You know
Count Pateroff? He knowed Lord Ongar, and I knowed Lord Ongar. We know
Lady Ongar. Ah! you understand now that I can have much to tell. It is
well you was not gone without seeing me! Eh! yes. You shall eat and
drink; but suppose you send that man into the kitchen!"

Sir Hugh was so taken by surprise that he hardly knew how to act on the
spur of the moment. He certainly had heard of Madam Gordeloup, though he
had never before seen her. For years past her name had been familiar to
him in London, and when Lady Ongar had returned as a widow it had been,
to his thinking, one of her worst offences that this woman had been her
friend. Under ordinary circumstances, his judgment would have directed
him to desire the servant to put her out into the street as an impostor,
and to send for the police if there was any difficulty. But it certainly
might be possible that this woman had something to tell with reference
to Lady Ongar which it would suit his purposes to hear. At the present
moment he was not very well inclined to his sister-in-law, and was
disposed to hear evil of her. So he passed on into the dining-room and
desired Madam Gordeloup to follow him. Then he closed the room door, and
standing up with his back to the fire-place, so that he might be saved
from the necessity of asking her to sit down, he declared himself ready
to hear anything that his visitor might have to say.

"But you will eat your dinner, Sir 'Oo. You will not mind me. I shall
not care."

"Thank you, no; if you will just say what you have got to say, I will be
obliged to you."

"But the nice things will be so cold! Why should you mind me? Nobody
minds me."

"I will wait, if you please, till you have done me the honor of
leaving."

"Ah! well, you Englishmen are so cold and ceremonious. But Lord Ongar
was not with me like that. I knew Lord Ongar so well."

"Lord Ongar was more fortunate than I am."

"He was a poor man who did kill himself. Yes. It was always that bottle
of Cognac. And there was other bottles that was worser still. Never
mind; he has gone now, and his widow has got the money. It is she has
been a fortunate woman. Sir 'Oo, I will sit down here in the arm chair."
Sir Hugh made a motion with h