"Certainly. Why do you ask?"
"_She_ saw Mr. Dunstable--and Miss Flink--in my uncle's studio, and she
was so distressed to think what--what Lord Dunstable"--there was a
perceptible pause before the name--"would feel, if his son married her,
that she determined to find out the truth about her. She told me she had
one or two clues, and I sent her to a cousin of mine--a very clever
solicitor--to be advised. That was yesterday morning. Then I got my
uncle to find out your son--and bring him to me yesterday afternoon
before I started. He came to our house in Kensington, and I told him I
had come across some very doubtful stories about Miss Flink. He was very
unwilling to hear anything. After all, he said, he was not going to live
with her. And she had nursed him--"
"Nursed him!" said Lady Dunstable, quickly. She had risen, and was
leaning against the mantelpiece, looking sharply down upon her visitor.
"That was the beginning of it all. He was ill in the winter--in his
lodgings."
"I never heard of it!" For the first time, there was a touch of
something natural and passionate in the voice.
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