Mr. North lifted his hat and passed his white handkerchief across his brow, very perplexed and stern just then.
"When can I see you alone, Charlotte?"
"This evening. As soon as dusk sets in, I will meet you in Chapel Lane:" and she directed him where to find it. "You stay at the lower end near that great building almost in ruins, the Friar's Keep, and I will come to you. Are you here at last to help me unravel the treachery, George?"
"I will try to do it."
"But why have you been so tardy?--why did you go to--what did you say--those Channel Islands?"
"I had an artist friend with me who would go over there. I did not care to show too much eagerness to come on to England--he might have suspected I had a motive. And it seems to me, Charlotte, that this investigation will be a most delicate business; one that a breath of suspicion, as to who I am, might defeat."
"And oh, why did you linger so long in Italy, George?" she asked in a low tone of painful wailing. "And to have neglected for months to let us get an address that would certainly find you! Had you been at Gap when the father died, the probability is that Anthony and you would have made the journey here in company. Surely Mr. James Castlemaine had not dared to kill him then!"
"Hush!" he answered in a voice more bitterly painful than her own. "You heard what I said just now in the salon: the regret, the self-reproach will only cease with my life. Until this evening then, Charlotte!"
"Until this evening."
"Who is that charming demoiselle?" he asked, as they shook hands in parting. "What relation is she to the house?"