The Duchess of Snowdon was in the house; had it anything to do with her?
Had she made trouble?
There was trouble enough without her.

He came forward, took Hylda's hand and kissed it, then kissed her on the cheek.

As he did so, she laid a hand on his arm with a sudden impulse, and pressed it.

Though his presence had chilled the high emotions of a few moments before, yet she had to break to him a truth which would hurt him, dismay him, rob his life of so much that helped it; and a sudden protective, maternal sense was roused in her, reached out to shelter him as he faced his loss and the call of duty.
"You have just come ?" she said, in a voice that, to herself, seemed far away.
"I have been here some hours," he answered.

Secrecy again--always the thing that had chilled the dead woman, and laid a cold hand upon herself--"I felt the shadow of secrecy in your life.