"Upon my honour," I said, looking at her curiously, "I have no idea whom you mean!"
She looked at inc steadily for several moments, her lips parted, her breath seeming to come sharply between her teeth.
"I mean your father," she said. "Whom else should I mean?"
CHAPTER XX
TWO TO ONE
I looked across at the woman, who was waiting my answer with every appearance of feverish interest.
"What should I know about him?" I said slowly. "I have been told that he is dead. I know no more than that."
She started as though my words had stung her.
"It is not possible!" she exclaimed. "I must have heard of it. When he left me—it was less than three months ago—he seemed better than I had known him for years."
"All my life," I said, "I have understood that my father died by his own hand after his disgrace. To-night for the first time I was told that this was not the fact. I understood, from what my informant said, that he had died recently."