Chapter 15 - Page 2

observing details no longer exists. As Redcliff said in speaking of
her--and girls generally--all the gates are thrown wide open."

The Duchess was very silent for a space before she made her reply.

"Yes."

"You do not know her mother?"

"No."

"Two weeks ago she gave me something to reflect on. Her feeling for her
daughter is that of a pretty cat-like woman for something enragingly
younger than herself. She always resented her. She was infuriated by
your interest in her. She said to me one afternoon, 'I hope the Duchess
is still pleased with her companion. I saw her to-day in Bond Street and
she looked like a housemaid I once had to dismiss rather suddenly. I am
glad she is in her grace's house and not in mine.'"

After a few seconds--

"_I_ am glad she is in my house and not in hers," the Duchess said.

"After I had spoken to her at some length and she had quite lost her
temper, she added 'You evidently don't know that she has been meeting
Donal Muir. He told me so himself at the Erwyn's. I asked him if he had
seen her since the dance and he owned that he had--and then was cross at
himself for making the slip. I did not ask him how _often_ he had met
her. He would not have told me. But if he met her once he met her as
often as he chose.' She was not lying when she said it. I know her. I
have been thinking constantly ever since." There was a brief silence
between them; then he proceeded. "Robin worshipped him when she was a
mere baby. They were very beautiful together on the night of the dance.
She fainted on the stairway after hearing of his death. She had been
crawling up to hide herself in her room, poor child! It is one of the
tragedies. Perhaps you and I together--"

The Duchess was seeing again the two who had come forth shining from the
conservatory. She continued to see them as Lord Coombe went on speaking,
telling her what Dr. Redcliff had told him.

* * * * *

On her part Robin scarcely understood anything which was happening
because nothing seemed to matter. On the morning when the Duchess told
her that Dr. Redcliff wished to see her alone that fact mattered as
little as the rest. She was indifferently conscious that the Duchess
regarded her in an anxious kind way, but if she had been unkind instead
of kind that would have meant nothing. There was only room for one thing
in the world. She wondered sometimes if she were really dead--as Donal
was--and did not know she was so. Perhaps after people died they walked
about as she did and did not understand that others could not see them
and they were not alive. But if she were dead she would surely see
Donal.