"Lady Thetford? Ah, yes! Most happy to see your ladyship once more. Permit me to apologize for this very early call—you will overlook my haste when you hear my reason."
Lady Thetford held out her white hand.
"Allow me to welcome you back to England, Colonel Jocyln. You have come to remain this time, I hope. And little Aileen is well, I trust?"
"Very well, and very glad to be released from shipboard. I need not ask for young Sir Rupert—I saw him with his nurse in the park as I rode up. A fine boy, and like you my lady."
"Yes, Rupert is like me. And now—how are our mutual friends in India?"
The momentous question she had been longing to ask from the first, but her well-trained voice spoke it as steadily as though it had been a question of the weather.
Colonel Jocyln's face darkened.
"I bring bad news from India, my lady, Captain Everard was a friend of yours?"
"Yes; he left his little daughter in my charge."
"I know. You have not heard from him lately?"