"'She was so pretty,' my friend said, 'and one of the saddest parts of it was that I hear she was terrifically disfigured, and she took this most sadly to heart. The right side of her face was utterly ruined, and the sight of the right eye lost, though, strange to say, the left side entirely escaped, and seeing her in profile one would have had no notion of what had happened. Was it not sad? She was such a sweet, bright creature.'
"I did not tell him _my_ story, for I did not want it chattered about, but a strange sort of shiver ran through me at his words. _It was the left side of her face only_ that the wraith of my poor friend had allowed me to see."
"And--as to the dates?" inquired Mr. Snowdon.
"I never knew the exact date of the accident," said Mr. Marischal, "but that of her death was fully six months after I had seen her. And in my own mind, I have never made any doubt that it was at or about, probably a short time after, the accident, that she came to me. It seemed a kind of appeal for sympathy--and--a farewell also, poor child."
They all sat silent for some little time, and then Mr. Marischal got up and went off to his own quarters, saying something vaguely about seeing if his letters had gone.
"What a touching story!" said Gladys Lloyd. "I am afraid, after all, it has been more painful than he realised for Mr. Marischal to tell it. Did you know anything of Maud's husband, dear Lady Denholme? Was he kind to her? Was she happy?"
"We never heard much about her married life," her hostess replied. "But I have no reason to think she was unhappy. Her husband married again two or three years after her death, but that says nothing."
"N--no," said Nina. "All the same, mamma, I am sure she really did love Uncle Paul very much,--much more than he had any idea of. Poor Maud!"
"And he has never married," added Gladys.
"No," said Lady Denholme, "but there have been many practical difficulties in the way of his doing so. He has had a most absorbingly busy life, and now that he is more at leisure he feels himself too old to form new ties."
"But," persisted Nina, "if he had had any idea at the time that Maud cared for him so?"
"Ah well," Lady Denholme allowed, "in that case, in spite of the practical difficulties, things would probably have been different."