Lady Loring’s impatience interrupted the Major’s apologies.  “Do you mean the duel?” she inquired.

Lord Loring interposed.  “I should tell you, Major Hynd, that Lady Loring is as well informed as I am of what happened at Boulogne, and of the deplorable result, so far as Romayne is concerned.  If you still wish to speak to me privately, I will ask you to accompany me into the next room.”

Major Hynd’s embarrassment vanished.  “After what you tell me,” he said, “I hope to be favored with Lady Loring’s advice.  You both know that Romayne fought the fatal duel with a son of the French General who had challenged him.  When we returned to England, we heard that the General and his family had been driven away from Boulogne by pecuniary difficulties.  Romayne, against my advice, wrote to the surgeon who had been present at the duel, desiring that the General’s place of retreat might be discovered, and expressing his wish to assist the family anonymously, as their Unknown Friend.  The motive, of course, was, in his own words, ’to make some little atonement to the poor people whom he had wronged.’  I thought it a rash proceeding at the time; and I am confirmed in my opinion by a letter from the surgeon, received yesterday.  Will you kindly read it to Lady Loring?”

He handed the letter to Lord Loring.  Translated from the French, it ran as follows: 

“SIR—­I am at last able to answer Mr. Romayne’s letter definitely, with the courteous assistance of the French Consul in London, to whom I applied when other means of investigation had produced no result.

“A week since the General died, circumstances connected with the burial expenses informed the Consul that he had taken refuge from his creditors, not in Paris as we supposed, but in London.  The address is, Number 10, Camp’s Hill, Islington.  I should also add that the General, for obvious reasons, lived in London under the assumed name of Marillac.  It will be necessary, therefore, to inquire for his widow by the name of Madame Marillac.

“You will perhaps be surprised to find that I address these lines to you, instead of to Mr. Romayne.  The reason is soon told.

“I was acquainted with the late General—­as you know—­at a time when I was not aware of the company that he kept, or of the deplorable errors into which his love of gambling had betrayed him.  Of his widow and his children I know absolutely nothing.  Whether they have resisted the contaminating influence of the head of the household—­or whether poverty and bad example combined have hopelessly degraded them—­I cannot say.  There is at least a doubt whether they are worthy of Mr. Romayne’s benevolent intentions toward them.  As an honest man, I cannot feel this doubt, and reconcile it to my conscience to be the means, however indirectly, of introducing them to Mr. Romayne.  To your discretion I leave it to act for the best, after this warning.”

Lord Loring returned the letter to Major Hynd.  “I agree with you,” he said.  “It is more than doubtful whether you ought to communicate this information to Romayne.”