"What do you say?" cried Idris in amazement. "You are the daughter of Captain Noel Rochefort?"
She inclined her head in assent.
"Then we shall be the best of friends, as our fathers were before us."
"You speak without knowledge," she replied, with a curious dry laugh.
"Did not Captain Rochefort prove his friendship by aiding my father to escape?"
"At my mother's urging: he would not otherwise have moved in the matter."
"Why was Madame Rochefort so anxious to see my father free?"
"You must not ask me that," replied Lorelie quickly, and looking alarmed the moment afterwards, as if betrayed into a rash statement.
This was certainly a strange answer, and Idris pondered over it in the silence that followed. There seemed no other explanation of her words than that there had existed a guilty love-intrigue between Madame Rochefort and Eric Marville. Was it possible that Lorelie herself was the offspring of——? With a shiver he put the suspicion aside. No: he would not think that!
"Is Captain Rochefort still living?"