"I cannot understand what you're driving at."
"Doctor Jones, a friend of ours went there to-day; he saw Mr. Drayton, and he told me if something was not done immediately he was quite quite certain that my sister will suffer. I am afraid for her poor child."
"Is she afraid for herself?" he asked, with a disagreeable smile.
"How can I tell?" said Grace, angrily; "he does not allow her to move without him; she is a very prisoner in that terrible house, she cannot come and see me; she escaped once and he has taken means to prevent her ever coming again. He does not allow her to go to church or to see a single soul. He must be mad, he is mad!"
"If I were Mr. Drayton and had a wife like your sister I would do the same, Miss Rivers."
"What do you mean?" she cried, passionately.
"Miss Rivers, your sister did not even allow to me that she had been out once. I saw her; I saw her meet her——I know it was her lover, in a shop."
Grace stared at him for a moment, and then she laughed wildly and hysterically.
"Poor Paul!" she said; "imagine, only imagine, being taken for Margaret's lover!"
Doctor Jones rose; he was exceedingly affronted.