"'He once appeared to me,' she told me.
"At the beginning of our conversations there is always a short digression. Her indifferent manner keeps me on the alert; then I find again her candor and her deep soul. It always requires time to harmonize.
"She does not try to convince me. I ask at all hazards:
"'Where and when?'
"'Do you want to know? It was in a lawyer's office.'
"'An extraordinary place for a ghost.'
"'Yes, they were advising me to give up my father's estate. He looked at me severely and showed me this wound. The dead always advise us to consent. They don't have to bear the consequences. At that time I thought that there were no useless sacrifices.'
"'And now?'
"'All sacrifices are useless.'
"Her golden eyes fixed me boldly as if she were defying me. I recalled her look of pride in London when she told me she had paid the last family debt.