All the time she talked she had been walking to and fro; suddenly she halted before me and said:
"_I_ always said it was a risk bringing you with us, but Bertie thought otherwise, and then your aunt was so frantically urgent, the money was such a temptation, and you were a nice girl, not at all modern, and I hoped and prayed that I would never be found out. I must explain about Colonel Armadale. No doubt, you, like everyone else, thought I flirted with him on board that dreadful old tub. He is a dear old friend and godfather to my elder boy. He meets Bob and his brother whenever he likes, but I, although I am their mother, never. He told me a great deal about them, and that Hugh, the younger, is brilliantly clever; his father is immensely proud of him. The child's only drawback is that he resembles _me_! Although I have not seen my boys I have seen my husband. Not very long before I came out he and a lady sat directly behind me in the stalls of a theatre. Another time we met face to face in the street, looked at one another--and passed on.
"Well now, Evie, you will not think too badly of me, will you--perhaps, some day, you may forgive me?"
"I forgive you now," I said, rising; "indirectly you have done me a very good turn, for in future I am to live with Ronnie. I am really sorry that this has happened to you, and I must tell you that since I came to Silliram I have enjoyed every day of the time we have spent here together."
"And never for a moment suspected that I had a past?"
"Yes, I did think there was something mysterious about you--you were so reserved about your affairs. I thought you had somehow or other come down in the world, and naturally did not care to talk about it. You always said you were poor--but you had some costly possessions. Your diamonds and your pearls----"
"Those pearls are sham!" she interrupted. "I sold my string for seven hundred pounds, and lived on it for years. Well, Evie, as you are making an early start to-morrow morning, I must not detain you any longer. Will you write to me sometimes?--'Care of Captain Hayes-Billington, the Katchoocan Mines,' will always find me, and I shall get so few letters."
"Yes," I replied, "I will certainly write."