CHAPTER IV

A QUESTION OF OBLIGATION

Afternoon tea was being served in the hall at Beauleys on the day after Saton’s arrival. Saton himself was sitting with Lois Champneyes in a retired corner.

“I was going to ask you,” he remarked, as he handed her some cakes, “about Mr. Rochester’s marriage. He was a bachelor when I—first met him.”

“Were you very intimate in those days?” she asked.

“Not in the least,” he answered, with a faint reminiscent smile.

“Then you never heard about the romance of his life?” she asked.

Saton shook his head.

“Never,” he declared. “Nor should I ever have associated the word with Mr. Rochester.”