'What is it, sir?'
'At least it is not good. How bad it may be I can't tell. Hazel has heard all about—what she shouldn't have heard!—the terms of the will and the whole story.'
A flash of very disagreeable surprise crossed the young man's face. He was silent.
'It seems Prudentia told her,' Dr. Maryland went on, uneasily. 'I don't understand how she could be so thoughtless; but so it is. Hazel was very much excited by what she heard.'
'Naturally! You saw her?'
'For a minute. She came to me to know if it was true; but she did not stay after that.'
No remark from the opposite party.
'I'm very sorry about it,' continued the old gentleman. 'I'm afraid—I was afraid, it might make you trouble, Dane. Prudentia is much to blame.'
Dane answered nothing. He wrung his late guardian's hand by way of acknowledging his sympathy, and left the study.
'I had almost caught my bird!' was his thought, pretty bitterly realized,—'and this woman has broken my snares. It isn't the first time!'