dreadful home-welcoming. When will father and
Franklin come back? It was very unkind of them to go off without one
word of encouragement."

"They probably did not consider the fate of this unknown woman a matter
of any importance to you."

The Van Burnam girls were unlike in appearance and character, but they
showed an equal embarrassment at this, casting down their eyes and
behaving so strangely that I was driven to wonder, without any show of
hysterics I am happy to say, what would be the upshot of this matter,
and how far I would become involved in it before the truth came to
light.

At dinner they displayed what I should call their best society manner.
Seeing this, I assumed my society manner also. It is formed on a
different pattern from theirs, but is fully as impressive, I judge.

A most formal meal was the result. My best china was in use, but I had
added nothing to my usual course of viands. Indeed, I had abstracted
something. An _entree_, upon which my cook prides herself, was omitted.
Was I going to allow these proud young misses to think I had exerted
myself to please them? No; rather would I have them consider me
niggardly and an enemy to good living; so the _entree_ was, as the
French say, suppressed.

In the evening their father came in. He was looking very dejected, and
half his bluster was gone. He held a telegram crushed in his hand, and
he talked very rapidly. But he confided none of his secrets to me, and I
was obliged to say good-night to these young ladies without knowing much
more about the matter engrossing us than when I left their house in the
afternoon.

But others were not as ignorant as myself. A dramatic and highly
exciting scene had taken place that evening at the undertaker's to which
the unknown's body had been removed, and as I have more than once heard
it minutely described, I will endeavor to transcribe it here with all
the impartiality of an outsider.

When Mr. Gryce entered the carriage in which Howard sat, he noted first,
that the young man was frightened; and secondly, that he made no effort
to hide it. He had heard almost nothing from the detective. He knew that
there had been a hue and cry for him ever since noon, and that he was
wanted to identify a young woman who had been found dead in his father's
house, but beyond these facts he had been told little, and yet he seemed
to have no curiosity nor did he venture to express any surprise. He
merely accepted the situation