THE DKRSINGHAMS AT HOME 151

Miss Verever, every feature in battle order, now bore
down on Lena, opening the engagement with a long-
range smile of the most sinister peculiarity* "Do I
understand, Miss Golspie," she said, with the most
mysterious grimace and the most baffling inflections,
"that you have just come from Paris? Have you been
living there?"

"Hello, hello!" cried Lena's startled expression.
"What have I done to you?" But all she actually said
in reply was: "Yes, I've just come from there, and I've
been living there?"

"Oh, you have been living there?"

"Yes, for the last eighteen months. With an uncle.
You see, he lives there, and I've been living with him."

"Oh, your uncle lives there?"

"Yes, he's lived there nearly all his life. He is half
French, anyhow. And my aunt's completely French."

"Then is your father-Mr. Golspie-half French?"
asked Miss Verever, in one of her strangest whispers.

"No, not at all," said Lena, with a little impatient
shake of her head. "You see, this uncle's my mother's
brother, not my father's."

"Oh, your mother's'' And now Miss Verever pro-
duced her most famous glance of inquiry, awfully enig-
matical in its final meaning and yet immediately chal-
lenging. She followed it up with a new smile, crooked,
terrible. "Well, then, of course, your mother must be
half French, I suppose, just like your uncle?"

"Yes, she was." And then Lena's little nose wrinkled,
partly in bewilderment, partly in distaste. Then she
looked straight at Miss Verever, who was bending over
her and searching her with an unwinking gaze. "But
what about it? I mean, there's nothing particularly