"I came across them quite by accident. It is much too long a tale to tell now. Indeed, it would take hours to tell fully, and I want not to lose any time at present."
"As you please, John. This is a day when wonders come so quick that we lose all sense of their importance. Tell me just what you like. I am only concerned about one thing."
"And what is that, mother?" He asked in a troubled voice. He was afraid she was about to make some reference to Dora.
"That you do not allow yourself to become too excited or carried away," she said, with pleading solicitude.
He kissed her, and said cheerfully: "Trust me, mother, I am not going to lose my head or knock myself up. Well, when I met Mrs. and Miss Grace yesterday----"
"Oh, the representatives are women?"
"Yes, mother, and gentlewomen too; though I should think far from well off----"
"If," said Mrs. Hanbury promptly, "narrow circumstances are all the drawback they labour under that could be soon put right."
"God bless you, my good mother," cried the son with affectionate pride. "Well, when I saw them yesterday in their place in Grimsby Street I had, of course, no notion whatever that they were in any way related to us. I took no particular notice of them beyond observing that they were ladies. The strangest thing about them is that the younger is--is----" He hesitated, not knowing how much of yesterday's events must come out.
"What?" said the mother with a smile.