lton.
There has been scandal enough. You do not think he wants to find Mr.
Dalton, too, do you, Martha?" she added slowly, as if some new terror
were growing on her.

"That's what Stephen thinks--find him and kill him. That's why he wanted
you to listen last night. That's why he wants to get you and Mr. Felix
together. Mr. Dalton won't stay here if he knows Mr. Felix is looking
for him. He's too big a coward."

Lady Barbara shivered, drew her gown closer, and sank to the bed again,
gazing straight before her. "Yes, that is what will happen, Martha--he
would kill him. I see it all now. That is what would have happened to
our gardener who ruined the gatekeeper's daughter, if the man had not
left England. She was only a girl--hardly grown; yes, it all comes back
to me. I remember what my husband did." She was still speaking under
her breath, reciting the story more to herself than to Martha, her
voice rising and falling, at times hardly audible. "Nothing--happened
then--because my husband--did not find the man."

She faced the nurse again. "You won't let him come here, will you,
Martha?"

"He'll come, my lady, if Stephen can get hold of him," came the positive
reply. "He had a room in a lodging-house not far from here, but he left
it, and Stephen doesn't know where he's gone. But he'll turn up again
down at the shop, and then--"

"But you must not let him come," she burst out.

Again she sat upright. "I won't have it--please--PLEASE! I will go away
if you do, where nobody will ever find me. I could not have him see
me--see me like this." She looked at her thin hands and over her shabby
gown. "Not like THIS!"

"No, you won't go away, my lady." There was a ring of authority now
in the nurse's voice. "You'll stay here. It's the only way out of this
misery for you. As for Mr. Felix and that scoundrel who has ruined you,
Mr. Felix will take care of him. But I'm going to let Mr. Felix in, if
the dear Lord will let him come. Mr. Felix loves you and--"

Her body stiffened. "He never loved me. He only loved his father," she
cried angrily, and again she sank back on her pillow. "All my misery
came from that."

Martha bent closer. "You never got that right, my lady," she returned
firmly. "You mustn't get angry with me, for I got to let it all out."
She was the nurse no longer; no matter what happened, she would unburden
her heart. "Mr. Felix isn't like other men. He stood by his father and
helped him when he was in troubl