If your mother will yield on these two points, my house is
entirely at her disposal."
He spoke playfully--he looked his best, since he had separated himself
from the painful associations that were now connected with Vange Abbey.
Had "the torment of the Voice" been left far away in Yorkshire? Stella
shrank from approaching the subject in her husband's presence, knowing
that it must remind him of the fatal duel. To her surprise, Romayne
himself referred to the General's family.
"I have written to Hynd," he began. "Do you mind his dining with us
to-day?"
"Of course not!"
"I want to hear if he has anything to tell me--about those French
ladies. He undertook to see them, in your absence, and to ascertain--"
He was unable to overcome his reluctance to pronounce the next words.
Stella was quick to understand what he meant. She finished the sentence
for him.
"Yes," he said, "I wanted to hear how the boy is getting on, and if
there is any hope of curing him. Is it--" he trembled as he put the
question--"Is it hereditary madness?"
Feeling the serious importance of concealing the truth, Stella only
replied that she had hesitated to ask if there was a taint of madness in
the family.
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