How was it then that he seemed to know her so well.

Had Mademoiselle told him that she was a woman to be trusted safely with any serious and intimate confidence--that being given any grave secret to shield, she would guard it as silently and discreetly as a great lady might guard such a thing if it were personal to her own family--as her grace herself might guard it.

That he knew this fact without a shadow of doubt was subtly manifest in every word he spoke, in each tone of his voice.

There was strange dark trouble to face--and keep secret--and he had come straight to her--Sarah Ann Dowson--because he was sure of her and knew her ways.

It was her _ways_ he knew and understood--her steadiness and that she had the kind of manners that keep a woman from talking about things and teach her how to keep other people from being too familiar and asking questions.