"Why should I? She connects the place with the story of your father, about whom I was forced to speak ten years ago; and, speaking personally, I have no desire to return there, and recall the horrors of the past."
"You were greatly affected by my father's death?"
"Naturally; he was my dearest friend. I would have given anything to discover the assassin."
"Did Mrs. Hilliston give you her opinion as to who was guilty?"
"No. I told her as little as I could of so painful a subject. She is not in possession of all the facts."
"At that rate why let her read 'A Whim of Fate'?"
"I don't wish her to read it," answered Hilliston quietly; "but I left the novel lying about, and she read the first two volumes. If I can help it, she shall not finish the story."
"Why object to her reading the third volume?"
"Because it would recall the past too vividly to her mind."
"I hardly follow you there," said Claude, with a keen look. "The fact to which you refer cannot exist for your wife. To her the novel can only be a second telling of the story related by you, when she wished to know who I was."