"She might be."
"I don't see what she has to gain. But there's no use talking any further. The matter is ended so far as I am concerned."
"What will you do now?"
"I am going to see Dorothy," said Brendon, "and tell her that there is no chance of our marriage. Nor is there, for I cannot see my way to prove my legitimacy. We must part, and I shall probably go down the country for six months or so, to finish my novel and to get rid of my heartache."
Train remained silent, looking at the ground. Then he glanced at his friend in a doubtful way. "What has become of your yellow holly?"
Brendon produced it from his pocket. "It withered, so I took it out of my coat and put it into this envelope."
"Do you know if Miss Ward gave any one else a piece of yellow holly?"
Brendon stared at this strange question. "Not to my knowledge. Why do you ask?"
Train shuffled his feet and looked down again. "It is an exceptionally rare sort of thing," he said uneasily, "and its effect on Mrs. Jersey was so strange that I wondered if she connected it with any trouble or disaster."
"You made the same remark before," said Brendon, dryly, "and we could arrive at no conclusion. But in any case I don't see that Miss Ward giving me the holly has anything to do with Mrs. Jersey's alarm--if indeed she was alarmed."