"She is not going to live long herself, dear," said Robert, in a
stifled voice.

"And he--did not know?"

"Hush! yes; but you must never tell any one. She tried to keep it
from him. That is her comfort."

"Oh," said Ellen. She looked up at the white face of the young man
bending over her, and suddenly the realization of a love that was
mightier than all the creatures who came of it and all who followed
it was over her.

Chapter XLIV

When Ellen did not return, there was some alarm in the Brewster
household. Mrs. Zelotes came over, finally, in a quiver of anxiety.

"Maybe I had better start out and see if I can find her," said
Andrew.

"I think you had better," returned his mother. "She went before
eight o'clock, and it's most midnight, and I've set at my window
watchin' ever since. I don't see what you've been thinkin' about,
waitin' all this time. I guess if I was a man I shouldn't have
waited."

"I think she may have gone in to see Abby Atkins--it's on the
way--and not realized how late it was," said Fanny, obstinately, but
with a very white face. She drew her thread through with a jerk. It
knotted, and she broke it off viciously.

"Fiddlesticks!" said her mother-in-law.

"There's no use imaginin' things," said Fanny, angrily; "but I think
myself you'd better go now, Andrew, and see if you can see anything
of her."

"I'm goin' with him," announced Mrs. Zelotes.

"Now, mother, you'd better stay where you be," said Andrew, putting
on his hat. Then the door flew open, and Amos Lee, who had seen the
light in the windows, and was burning to impart the news of the
tragedy, rushed in.

"Heard what's happened?" he cried out.

They all thought of Ellen. "What?" demanded Andrew, in a terrible
voice. Fanny dropped her work and stared at him, with her chin
falling as if she were dying. Mrs. Zelotes made a queer gurgling
noise in her throat. Lee stared at them a second, bewildered by the
effect of his own words, although they had for him such a tragic
import. Andrew caught hold of him in a grasp like the clamp of a
machine. "What?" he demanded again.

"The boss has been shot," cried Lee, getting his breath.

Andrew dropped his arm, and they all stared at him. Lee went on
fluently, as if he were a fakir at a fair.

"Nahum Beals did it. The boss went back to the office to get his
pocketbook; McLaughlin saw him; then he went down the stairs; Nahum,
he--he fired; he had been hidin' underneath the stair