I will meet you at the station myself. Nothing would give me
greater pleasure, and I know the lady who was once your client would
unite with me in the invitation."
"The temptation is too great to resist," I responded, after a moment's
reflection, "and I accept with pleasure."
A week later I alighted from Christopher Gault's carriage at the door of
a beautiful summer cottage, not a mile from where my vacation had been
spent in '79. His own groom led the horse to the stable, and Mrs. Gault
met us on the veranda. She welcomed me in her charming manner, making a
pleasant allusion as she did so to our first meeting as attorney and
client. We chatted pleasantly for a half hour, when a bell announced
that dinner was ready, and we repaired to the dining-room, where a meal
was served, simply, but most tastefully. "Now," said Mr. Gault, as we
rose from the table, "perhaps you have in mind the promised explanation
of my rather precipitate departure from this attractive region some time
ago; and, if Mrs. Gault will excuse us, we will take a little walk.
"You will remember," he began, as we walked leisurely down the
well-shaded path in the narrow country road, "that two years ago I
showed to you a picture of a lady whom we have just left.
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