As her visitor talked her heart began to thump in her side.

Whatsoever had happened was no secret from her grace.

And together she and his lordship were going to keep it a secret from the world.

Dowie could scarcely have told what phrase or word at last suddenly brought up before her a picture of the nursery in the house in Mayfair--the feeling of a warm soft childish body pressed close to her knee, the look of a tender, dewy-eyed small face and the sound of a small yearning voice saying: "I want to _kiss_ you, Dowie." And so hearing it, Dowie's heart cried out to itself, "Oh! Dear Lord!" "It's Miss Robin that trouble's come to," involuntarily broke from her.
"A trouble she must be protected in.

She cannot protect herself." For a few seconds he sat and looked at her very steadily.