She stopped. "What is it you want?"
"Your father has received some answer to the inquiries he has been having made about me?"
"I don't know, Mr. Eaton."
"Is he alone?"
"Yes."
Eaton thought a minute. "That is all I wanted to know, then," he said.
Harriet opened the outer door and knocked on the inner one. Eaton heard Santoine's voice at once calling them to come in, and as Harriet opened the second door, he followed her into the room. The blind man turned his sightless eyes toward them, and, plainly aware—somehow—that it was Eaton and Harriet who had come in, and that no one else was with them, he motioned Harriet to close the door and set a chair for Eaton beside the bed. Eaton, understanding this gesture, took the chair from her and set it as Santoine's motion had directed; then he waited for her to seat herself in one of the other chairs.
"Am I to remain, Father?" she asked.
"Yes," Santoine commanded.
Eaton waited while she went to a chair at the foot of the bed and seated herself—her clasped hands resting on the footboard and her chin upon her hands—in a position to watch both Eaton and her father while they talked; then Eaton sat down.