"Nonsense! Don't bother to pretend you don't know, Flora. You can't expect me to be honest, unless you are."
"Well," Miss Sturtevant smiled, "let us assume that I do know who the Smithers woman is. An old friend of your father, if I remember correctly."
"Bother!" he said impatiently. "Why do you tease so to-day? Do you want me to relate all the details of her disreputable relations with my father?"
"Oh, no! Nothing disreputable," Flora exclaimed with a deprecatory gesture of her small hands. "But what about her now?"
"You've heard how madly fond of her old Mullen became in his last days?"
"Yes: it was as romantic as it was improper."
"Mullen put into her hands papers which related to my father's affairs, and I want them."
"It is strange how that woman held both your father and Mr. Mullen," Miss Sturtevant said reflectively. "I should like to see her."
She seemed to become more and more indifferent as the conversation proceeded; while, in reality, reasons of which Breck could know nothing, made her intensely interested.