d be informed of her illness."

"She has no heirs, except--"

He paused, and after a few seconds exclaimed,--

"Don't ask me! All I know is that I heard her say she intended to
leave her fortune to poor painters."

"To whom shall I write, or rather telegraph? Where did she live before
she came to 'Solitude'? Who were her friends?"

"Mr. Simonton, of New York, is her lawyer and agent. Two letters have
come from him since she has been sick. Of course I did not open them,
but I know his handwriting. They are behind the clock in the back
parlor."

"Would it not be better to telegraph him at once?"

"What good could he do? Better send for the minister, and have her
baptized. Oh! but this is truly a world of trouble, and I almost wish
I was safely out of it."

"If she were conscious, she would not submit to baptism; and it would
not be right to take advantage of her delirium and force a ceremony to
which she is opposed."

"Not even, sir, to save her soul?"

"Her soul can not be affected by the actions of others, unless her
will cooperates, which is impossible in her present condition. Robert,
after your mother was partially paralyzed, she said that she desired
to confide something to me just before her death, and intimated that
it referred to Mrs. Gerome. She wished me to befriend her mistress,
and felt that I ought to know the particulars of her early history.
Unfortunately, Elsie was speechless when I arrived, and could not tell
me what she had intended to acquaint me with. I mention this fact to
assure you that if your mother could trust me, you need not regard me
so suspiciously."

"Dr. Grey, as far as I am concerned, you are very welcome to every
thought in my head and feeling in my heart; but where it touches my
mistress I have nothing to say. I will not deny that I know more than
you do, but when my poor mother told me, she held my hand on the Bible
and made me swear a solemn oath that what she told me should never
pass my lips to any man, woman, or child. So you must not blame me,
sir."

"Certainly not, Robert. But if she has any friends it is your duty to
send for them at once."

Dr. Grey rose and went into the library, where for some moments he
walked to and fro, perplexed and grieved. As his eye rested on the
escritoire, he recollected the key which he had kept in his pocket
since the hour that he picked it up from the carpet.

Doubtless a few minutes' search in its drawers and casket would place