"You are sure, quite sure, Mr. Clinton?"
"That is what I was told," replied the lawyer, with so truthful an air that the listener could not doubt him.
"Perhaps you can tell me where she lived before Lord Ivon's lawyer found her, Mr. Clinton?"
"It was in the South. I do not remember the name of the place. Indeed, I am not sure I ever heard. It was not talked about much, because Lord Ivon seemed to have a marked distaste to the subject."
"I thank you for your information, Mr. Clinton. I shall make no improper use of it, yet there may be a startling dénouement to the story you have told me. If so, you will understand what brought me here to-day," the young man said, with an earnestness that impressed the lawyer very much and made him very curious.
But Laurie Meredith went away without confiding anything, for he felt that such a step would be premature.
But his brain was reeling with the wild suspicions that chased each other through it.
"I am almost persuaded that the girl is Flower herself!" he thought. "Yet, in that case, she knows me—knows me as the husband for whom she ceased so soon to care, and secure in her fancied sure disguise, laughs at me and my love—even pledges her faith to another before my eyes! Who could have believed that lovely, gentle little Flower could be so heartless and wicked? Will she dare to marry him, knowing herself bound to me? Yet she told him her lover had proved false, and that she had heard that he was dead. What if there has been treachery somewhere? Jewel—she has loved me always, and there has been something of the tiger-cat in her jealousy of Azalia Brooke. What if—"
He could think collectedly no longer, but flung himself down on his bed, while wild, blissful visions chased each other through his brain.