“I have had a painful interview with my son” she said, quietly.  “It could not be otherwise, and I can only hope that in a little while he will do me justice.  Oliver will join us presently.  And now—­first, Sir James, let me ask you—­you really believe that Miss Mallory has been till now in ignorance of her mother’s history?”

Sir James started.

“Good Heavens, Lady Lucy!  Can you—­do you—­suppose anything else?”

Lady Lucy paused before replying.

“I cannot suppose it—­since both you and my son—­and Mr. Ferrier—­have so high an opinion of her.  But it is a strange and mysterious thing that she should have remained in this complete ignorance all these years—­and a cruel thing, of course—­to everybody concerned.”

Sir James nodded.

“I agree.  It was a cruel thing, though it was done, no doubt, from the tenderest motives.  The suffering was bound to be not less but more, sooner or later.”

“Miss Mallory is very greatly to be pitied.  But it is, of course, clear that my son proposed to her, not knowing what it was essential that he should know.”

Sir James paused.

“We are old friends, Lady Lucy—­you and I,” he said at last, with deliberation; and as he spoke he bent forward and took her hand.  “I am sure you will let me ask you a few questions.”

Lady Lucy made no reply.  Her hand—­without any movement of withdrawal or rebuff—­gently dropped from his.

“You have been, I think, much attracted by Miss Mallory herself?”

“Very much attracted.  Up to this morning I thought that she would make an excellent wife for Oliver.  But I have been acting, of course, throughout under a false impression.”

“Is it your feeling that to marry her would injure Oliver’s career?”

“Certainly.  But that is not what weighs with me most heavily.”

“I did not for a moment believe that it would.  However, let us take the career first.  This is how I look at it.  If the marriage went forward, there would no doubt be some scandal and excitement at first, when the truth was known.  But Oliver’s personality and the girl’s charm would soon live it down.  In this strange world I am not at all sure it might not in the end help their future.  Oliver would be thought to have done a generous and romantic thing, and his wife’s goodness and beauty would be all the more appreciated for the background of tragedy.”

Lady Lucy moved impatiently.

“Sir James—­I am a plain person, with plain ideas.  The case would present itself to me very differently; and I believe that my view would be that of the ordinary man and woman.  However, I repeat, that is not what I think of first—­by any means.”

“You think of the criminal taint?—­the risk to Oliver—­and to Oliver’s children?”

She made a sign of assent.

“Character—­and the protection of character—­is not that what we have to think of—­above all—­in this world of temptation?  We can none of us afford to throw away the ordinary helps and safeguards.  How can I possibly aid and abet Oliver’s marriage with the daughter of a woman who first robbed her own young sister, in a peculiarly mean and cruel way, and then committed a deliberate and treacherous murder?”