"I need no introduction, Mrs. Campbell," said Sir Thomas, with smiling courtesy. "I remember you perfectly, though you have been growing younger, instead of older."
Theodora quickly introduced her father, leaving him with Sir Thomas while she and Lady Wynton went to the Wyntons' parlor for conversation. "I must write Robert at once," said Lady Wynton. "It will be such a wonderful thing to him, for I am sure he has given up all hope of ever seeing you again, Dora. Two years ago he left Traquair House; he could not endure his empty lonely rooms any longer."
"Poor, dark, sad rooms! I try to forget them also."
"They are not dark and empty now, Christina and her husband and babies are living in them, and they make them lively enough, I have no doubt."
A shadow passed over Theodora's face, and she did not speak for a few moments. Then she asked: "What was done with the furniture and the things I used to believe were mine?"
"Christina wrote me that Robert had given everything in the rooms to her."
"How kind of him!" There was a little scorn in her voice, and she asked, "What about my piano, and my music?"
"Oh, Theodora, you must not feel hurt. Poor Robert! He was nearly broken-hearted. He never expected to see you. He had spent a fortune on detectives, who looked all over Europe for you. One night I sat with him, and I really thought he was insane. He acted like it."
"But he gave my piano and music away."
"I suppose he could not bear to see them—and you had left them, you know."