“I don’t see it. A quarrel between her and us would be to his advantage.”

“There can’t well be a quarrel all on one side.”

“No. But he might turn her against us.”

“Why should he?”

“For selfish ends,” I said, after a moment’s hesitation.

Robert did not seem to understand, and I grew impatient.

“Can’t you see, Robert? She has property, and Churton would not mind a little more money than he has.”

“Perhaps nobody would. But I wouldn’t be suspicious,” Robert said gravely. Yet it seemed to me from his manner that the same idea had occurred to him before.

“What if it is more than a mere suspicion?” I asked.

“We have no real grounds for supposing anything of the kind. Churton is always indolent about writing; and Aunt Briscoe is always nervous about infection. This illness has unfortunately kept us all apart for a long while; but quarantine cannot be kept up much longer. It has reached already to an absurd extent. When we are in and out again at 'The Gables,’ all will come right.”