"I don't know; Mr. Edermont won't tell me. And I asked you about this Lady Burville because I feel sure she has something to do with it."
"But, Miss Carew, I do not understand!"
"Well, Mrs. Tice," cried Dora quickly, "Mr. Joad said Lady Burville knew my guardian and Allen's father, and--I'm sure I can't tell how--but it has something to do with our marriage being stopped and Allen's going to London."
By this time Mrs. Tice was perfectly livid, and trembling like a leaf. Out of the incoherencies of Dora's story she had picked an idea, and it was this which moved her so deeply. Dora looked at her in astonishment.
"What is the matter, Mrs. Tice? Are you ill?"
The housekeeper shook her head; then, rising with some difficulty, she went to a cupboard, and produced therefrom a book of portraits. Turning over the pages of this, she pointed out one to Dora.
"A little man with silvery hair," she said slowly--"is that your guardian, Miss Carew?"
Dora looked and saw the face--clean-shaven--of a young man. Notwithstanding the absence of beard, she recognised it at once. It was Julian Edermont, with some twenty years off his life.
"Yes, that is Mr. Edermont," she said, astonished at the discovery.
"And you are his--his daughter?" questioned the housekeeper.