"Mrs. Rutherford would like to see you, Mr. Evert, if you please; she isn't so well, she says."
"Nothing serious, Minerva, I hope?"
"I guess there's no occasion to be scairt, Mr. Evert. But she wants you."
"I will come immediately."
Celestine disappeared.
Garda and Winthrop turned back towards the house through the orange aisle.
"Mrs. Rutherford has never known, has she, that we have been engaged?" asked Garda.
"No."
"There is no need that she should ever know, then; she isn't fond of me as it is, and she would detest me forever if she knew there had been a chance of my becoming in reality her niece. I don't want to trouble her any longer with even my unseen presence; I want to go away."
"Where?"