Beset by anxious anticipations, she entered the room, and saw before her a figure not wholly unlike what she had imagined:  a wiry, resolute-looking man, with knitted brows, lips close-set, and heavy feet firmly planted on the carpet.  He was respectably dressed, but nothing more, and in his large bare hands held a brown hat marked with a grease spot.  One would have judged him a skilled mechanic.  When he began to speak, his blunt but civil phrases were in keeping with this impression.  He had not the tone of an educated man, yet committed no vulgar errors.

’My name is Cobb.  I must beg your pardon for troubling you.  Perhaps you have heard of me from Miss Derrick?’

‘Yes, Mr. Cobb, your name has been mentioned,’ Emmeline replied nervously.  ‘Will you sit down?’

‘Thank you, I will.’

He twisted his hat about, and seemed to prepare with difficulty the next remark, which at length burst, rather than fell, from his lips.

’I wanted to see Miss Derrick.  I suppose she is still living with you?  They told me so.’

A terrible man, thought Emmeline, when roused to anger; his words must descend like sledge-hammers.  And it would not take much to anger him.  For all that, he had by no means a truculent countenance.  He was trying to smile, and his features softened agreeably enough.  The more closely she observed him, the less grew Emmeline’s wonder that Louise felt an interest in the man.

’Miss Derrick is likely to stay with us for some time, I believe.  She has only gone to town, to do some shopping.’

’I see.  When I met her last she talked a good deal about you, Mrs. Mumford, and that’s why I thought I would ask to see you.  You have a good deal of influence over her.’

‘Do you think so?’ returned Emmeline, not displeased.  ’I hope I may use it for her good.’

’So do I. But—­well, it comes to this, Mrs. Mumford.  She seemed to hint—­though she didn’t exactly say so—­that you were advising her to have nothing more to do with me.  Of course you don’t know me, and I’ve no doubt you do what you think the best for her.  I should feel it a kindness if you would just tell me whether you are really persuading her to think no more about me.’

It was an alarming challenge.  Emmeline’s fears returned; she half expected an outbreak of violence.  The man was growing very nervous, and his muscles showed the working of strong emotion.

‘I have given her no such advice, Mr. Cobb,’ she answered, with an attempt at calm dignity.  ’Miss Derrick’s private affairs don’t at all concern me.  In such matters as this she is really quite old enough to judge for herself.’

‘That’s what I should have said,’ remarked Mr. Cobb sturdily.  ’I hope you’ll excuse me; I don’t wish to make myself offensive.  After what she said to me when we met last, I suppose most men would just let her go her own way.  But—­but somehow I can’t do that.  The thing is, I can’t trust what she says; I don’t believe she knows her own mind.  And so long as you tell me that you’re not interfering—­I mean, that you don’t think it right to set her against me—­’