unmistakable tone of suspicion in the strange question. I hesitated about answering it.
“Some,” I said, after a moment’s silence.
“Many”—she came to a full stop, and looked me searchingly in the face—“many men of the rank of Baronet?”
Too much astonished to reply, I questioned her in my turn.
“Why do you ask?”
“Because I hope, for my own sake, there is one Baronet that you don’t know.”
“Will you tell me his name?”
“I can’t—I daren’t—I forget myself when I mention it.” She spoke loudly
this; I knew that I ought to consider myself very fortunate if I succeeded in securing the offered employment—and yet, no sooner had I read the memorandum than I felt an inexplicable unwillingness within me to stir in the matter. I had never in the whole of my previous experience found my duty and my