Octavia roused herself, and smiled with candid sweetness.
"He is some one I knew in Nevada," she explained. "He worked in father's mine once."
"You must have known him very well," suggested Lucia, somewhat awed.
"I did," she replied calmly. "Very well."
She tucked away her pocket-handkerchief in the jaunty pocket at the back of her basque, and returned to her chair. Then she turned again to Lucia.
"Well," she said, "I think you have found out that you were mistaken, haven't you, dear? Suppose you tell me of something else."
Lucia colored.
"No," she answered: "that is enough for to-day."