The tone of the final letters conveyed an impression terrible in its suggestiveness to her mind now that by means of her hypnotic experiment she had become aware of the tragedy that had taken place within the interior of Ormfell.
"The Idris went down on the evening of October 13th," she murmured, "and late that same night Olave Ravengar returned to Ravenhall after an absence of ten years. Is this a coincidence, or is the present earl the same person as Eric Marville? Did my father go down with the yacht, or did he escape the sea only to fall within the interior of Ormfell by the hand of the man whom he had wronged?"
CHAPTER XVI LORELIE AT RAVENHALL
Lord Walden was reading a newspaper one afternoon in the quietude of his own room at Ravenhall, when the step of some person entering the chamber unannounced caused him to look up, and he found Lorelie standing before him.
"Hul-lo!" he muttered, throwing down the newspaper, and startled beyond measure at seeing his wife so near his father's presence. "What brings you here?"
"To claim my rights," she answered quietly. "Why should the wife occupy a modest villa while the husband lives in castled state?"
She took off her toque and mantle, threw them upon the table, and, with the air of one who had come to stay, sat down in an armchair opposite him.
For some moments Ivar frowned darkly at his fair young wife, and was obviously dismayed by her determination.