CHAPTER XIV
A Duel
Mrs. Matthewson entered the little parlour,
where she had met Trafford, for the
purpose of keeping another appointment—one that
she had not wanted to make and which she had not
yet dared refuse. When she visited her son, she knew
the name of the man who, under his direction, was
hunting down Theodore Wing's mother, but she did
not know the man. Now she was to meet him face
to face. She was afraid, and she bore herself with
the air of a queen about to grant a favour to her
humblest subject.
Cranston felt her imperiousness in the very air as he entered, and rebel as he would, it daunted him and took a share of his bravado from him. She returned his salutation, but with the evident purpose not to aid him in the slightest in the delivery of his errand.
