Vera was not behind the scenes as yet. Still, within a few hours the thing must come out. What the family regarded as a nurse had been procured for the invalid, a nurse who really was a female warder in disguise, and Ravenspur had sternly given strict orders that nobody was to go near that room. He vouchsafed no reason why; he gave the order and it was obeyed.
Then Geoffrey told Vera everything. He went through the whole story from the very beginning. Vera listened as one in a dream. Such wickedness was beyond her comprehension. Awful as the cloud was that had long hung over the house of Ravenspur, Vera had not imagined it to be lined with such depravity as this.
"And so that inhuman wretch is Marion's mother?" said Vera. "The child of a creature who deliberately murdered a husband and tried to destroy his family so that she could get everything into her hands! No wonder that Marion has been a changed creature since this Mrs. May has been about! How I pity her anguish and condition of mind! But had Marion a sister?"
"Not that I ever heard of. Why?"
"I was thinking of that other girl, the girl so like Marion that you were talking about just now. What has become of her?"
Geoffrey shook his head. He had forgotten that most mysterious personage. It was more than likely, he explained, that Tchigorsky would know. Not that it much mattered. The two were silent for some little time, then a peal of laughter from the drawing-room caused them to smile.
"My mother," said Vera. "I have not heard her laugh like that for years. Does it not seem funny to realize that before long we shall be laughing and chatting and moving with the world once more, Geoff? I should like to leave Ravenspur and have a long, long holiday on the Continent."
Geoffrey stooped and kissed her.
"So you shall, sweet," he said. "We can be married now. And when we come back to Ravenspur it will be the dear old home I recollect in my childhood's days. Vera, you and I shall be the happiest couple in the world."
They went back to the drawing room again. Here the elders were conversing quietly yet happily. There was an air of cheerful gaiety upon them that the house had not know for many a long day.