His voice immediately made itself heard in the library.
"Come in, Stella--come in! Here is a new picture for you to see; and a friend whom I want to present to you, who must be your friend too--Mr.
Lewis Romayne." The door was closed again.

Father Benwell stood still as a statue in the recess, with his head down, deep in thought.

After a while he roused himself, and rapidly returned to the writing table.

With a roughness strangely unlike his customary deliberation of movement, he snatched a sheet of paper out of the case, and frowning heavily, wrote these lines on it:--"Since my letter was sealed, I have made a discovery which must be communicated without the loss of a post.

I greatly fear there may be a woman in our way.