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All this long talk about Richard Latham to lead up casually to this question! And so casually reached that Kit never suspected!

He blushed slightly, as Miss Carrington noted, but he answered with his jolly laugh:

“It stands for something that sounds a good deal the same, but is different enough, Aunt Anne. It stands for Anne Dallas, I suppose; she’s Richard Latham’s secretary.”

“Oh, does it? To be sure, he would have a secretary. Pity he is blind! And the secretary would be able to write a good letter. It’s not remarkable; clear, intelligent, a good letter. His secretary must need patience—and no other interests. I suppose he might be more likely to get that in a woman, but I should want a man. However, he can get a woman sufficiently trained for his requirements at a lower salary than a man’s. Anne Dallas, you said? Not a Cleavedge name. Where did he find her? I hope she doesn’t annoy him, but if she is ugly he can’t see it! It would be horrible to a poet to have an ugly woman under his beauty-loving eyes all day, week in, week out. I wonder—but of course you don’t know, you don’t visit Mr. Latham. She can’t be a Cleavedge woman, I should think?”