When she entered the parlour Paul stept forward to take her in his arms.  That was a matter of course.  She knew it would be so, and she had prepared herself for it.  ‘Paul,’ she said, ’let me hear about all this—­first.’  She sat down at some distance from him,—­and he found himself compelled to seat himself at some distance from her.

‘And so you have heard of Mrs Hurtle,’ he said, with a faint attempt at a smile.

‘Yes;—­Felix told me, and Roger evidently had heard about her.’

’Oh yes; Roger Carbury has heard about her from the beginning;—­knows the whole history almost as well as I know it myself.  I don’t think your brother is as well informed...