For she
felt sure that had she herself known of such an accident she would
have done something, said something, to make it right. And she was not
half the woman her mother had been, she was sure of that.
There was something very likable in the old gentleman who came forward
to greet her as she entered the drawing-room; something courtly and of
the old school, of which she was so tired of hearing, but of which she
wished she could have seen more in the men she met. Young Mr. Latimer
had accompanied his guardian, exactly why she did not see, but she
recognized his presence slightly. He seemed quite content to remain in
the background. Mr. Lockwood, as she had expected, explained that he
had called to thank her for the return of the medal. He had it in his
hand as he spoke, and touched it gently with the tips of his fingers
as though caressing it.
"I knew your father very well," said the lawyer, "and I at one time
had the honor of being one of your mother's younger friends. That was
before she was married, many years ago." He stopped and regarded the
girl gravely and with a touch of tenderness. "You will pardon an old
man, old enough to be your father, if he says," he went on, "that you
are greatly like your mother, my dear young lady--greatly like.
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