The chairs were painted--some French, some Heppelwhite.

Over the low mantelpiece was framed a long, narrow piece of exquisite embroidery.
"I suppose you have often stayed here ?" began Miss Farrow civilly.
Helen Brabazon looked at her, surprised.

"I've never been here before!" she exclaimed.

"How could I have been?
I've only known Mr.Varick for, let me see,"-- she hesitated--"a very little over a year." "But you were a great friend of his wife's--at least so I understood ?" Blanche concealed, successfully, her very real astonishment.

She had certainly been told by Lionel that Miss Brabazon and "poor Milly" had been intimate friends; that this fact was, indeed, the only link between Miss Brabazon and her host.
The girl now sitting opposite to her flushed deeply, and suddenly Blanche Farrow realized that there was a good deal of character and feeling in the open, ingenuous face.
"Yes, that's true.