CHAPTER XVI.
MUTUAL EXPLANATIONS Thanking the captain for his courtesy, Miss Carleton returned to her accustomed seat on deck, and, since one is never more alone than when surrounded by a crowd of utter strangers, she felt at liberty to pursue her own thoughts without interruption.
She could scarcely credit what her own ears had heard or her eyes had seen.

Harold Scott Mainwaring! What could it mean?
Could it be possible that the secretary, having familiarized himself with the family history of the Mainwarings, was now masquerading under an assumed name for some object of his own?
But she dismissed this idea at once.

She had assured him at Fair Oaks that she believed him incapable of anything false or dishonorable, and she would abide by that belief until convinced otherwise.

But if this were indeed his name, what had been his object in assuming the role of Scott, the secretary?
Which was genuine and which assumed?
Who could tell?
As if in answer to her thoughts, she saw the subject of them approaching.

He was alone and looking in her direction, and on reading the recognition in her glance, his own face lighted with a smile that banished the last shade of resentment and suspicion from her mind, albeit there was a question in her eyes which prepared him in a measure for her first words.