Her cousin
also was mute for a moment. Their eyes met, and fell.
"You remember Mr. Otway's brother?" said Olga, in an unsteady voice,
and then ceased.
"He? Daniel Otway?"
Irene had turned pale; she spoke under her breath. At once there
recurred to her the unexplained incident at Malvern Station.
"I knew mother was foolish in keeping up an acquaintance with him,"
Olga answered, with some vehemence. "I detested the man, what I saw
of him. And I suspect--of course mother won't say--he has been
having money from her."
An exclamation of revolted feeling escaped Irene. She could not
speak her thoughts; they were painful almost beyond endurance. She
could not even meet her cousin's look.
"It's a hideous thing to talk about," Olga pursued, her head bent
and her hands crushing each other, "no wonder it seems to be almost
driving her mad. What do you think she did, as soon as she received
the notice? She sent for Piers Otway, and told him, and asked him to
help her. He came in the afternoon, when I was out. Think how
dreadful it must have been for her!"
"How could _he_ help her?" asked Irene, in a strangely subdued tone,
still without raising her eyes.
"By seeing his brother, she thought, and getting him, perhaps, to
persuade my father--how I hate the name!--that there were no
grounds for such an action."
"What"--Irene forced each syllable from her lips--"what are the
grounds alleged?"
Olga began a reply, but the first word choked her.
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