"Yes, thoroughly. You see, I was curious."
"And you had not been thinking about supernatural things?"
"Not in the least. For that matter, I had a few minutes before met your sister."
"Oh, yes; Bella told me she had met you, and was afraid she had shocked you."
"No, I was not shocked at all; I was very interested."
"Bella is a curious girl," said Hugh Lethbridge, after a short silence. "We have always been very good friends, but I have never understood her. Even when she was quite a girl she was different from those of her own age."
"In what way?"
"She was always so hard, so matter of fact. I have told her more than once that she has no soul." He said the words lightly, but to me they were ominous with meaning. He had put into words what I had felt.
"I suppose I ought not to say this," went on Hugh; "but I don't feel towards you as I do towards other men. I don't know why it is. No sooner did I see you than I wanted to have you as a friend; I felt I could trust you. You don't mind my saying this, do you?"
"Rather it is awfully good of you."