The woman started. It was a startled start. The challenge of her countenance wavered; the precision of her manner became an attitude of caution.
"Not-not Pierce Langford of-of-?" she began.
The man smiled on one side of his mouth.
"The very one, none other," he answered cunningly. "Not to be in the least obscure, I am from the pretty, quiet and somewhat sequestered city of Fairberry. You know the place, I believe."
"I've never been there and hope I shall never have occasion to go to your diminutive metropolis," she returned rather savagely.
"No?" the visitor commented with a rising inflection for rhetorical effect. "By the way, may I come in?"
"Certainly," Mrs. Graham answered recovering quickly from a partial lapse of mindfulness of the situation.
The woman turned and led the way into the house and the visitor followed. Mrs. Graham directed the lawyer to a reed rocking chair and herself sat down on another reed-rest of the armchair variety. The woman by this time had recovered something of her former challenging attitude and inquired:
"Well, Mr. Langford, what is the meaning of this visit?"
"Very much meaning, Mrs. Graham," was the reply; "and of very much significance to you, I suspect. I come here well primed with information which I am sure will cause you to welcome me as you perhaps would welcome nobody else in the world."