“You are the daughter of Julius Thoreau, the artist?”
“Yes, that is right.”
“Then I am delighted to make your acquaintance, Miss Thoreau,” Mr. Beaumont said.
“Did you know my father?”
“No, but I have admired his pictures, especially the one the Duke has just bought.”
“I had not seen it until – yesterday,” Una said.
She thought Mr. Beaumont looked surprised and she explained,
“I came to Paris yesterday to stay with my – father, but when I – arrived, I found that he was – dead!”
“Dead?” Mr. Beaumont exclaimed, wondering why the Duke had not informed him of the fact.
“It was – a great shock,” Una said. “I was told it was – an accident.”
“I am very sorry,” Mr. Beaumont murmured.
He thought that she looked a little lost and he could not understand why, even if her father was dead, th
