, the establishment was ringing with the news. That blue ribbon
round Toto's neck was worn in honour of the triumph. There was also,
though you could not see it, a chicken dinner in Toto's interior, by way
of further celebration.

And was it true that Mr. Fillmore had bought the piece? A great man, was
Mrs. Meecher's verdict. Mr. Faucitt had always said so...

"Oh, how is Mr. Faucitt?" Sally asked, reproaching herself for having
allowed the pressure of other matters to drive all thoughts of her late
patient from her mind.

"He's gone," said Mrs. Meecher with such relish that to Sally, in her
morbid condition, the words had only one meaning. She turned white and
clutched at the banisters.

"Gone!"

"To England," added Mrs. Meecher. Sally was vastly relieved.

"Oh, I thought you meant..."

"Oh no, not that." Mrs. Meecher sighed, for she had been a little
disappointed in the old gentleman, who started out as such a promising
invalid, only to fall away into the dullness of robust health once more.
"He's well enough. I never seen anybody better. You'd think," said Mrs.
Meecher, bearing up with difficulty under her grievance, "you'd
think this here new Spanish influenza was a sort of a tonic or
somep'n, the way he looks now. Of course," she added, trying to find
justification for a respected lodger, "he's had good news. His brother's
dead."

"What!"

"Not, I don't mean, that that was good news, far from it, though, come
to think of it, all flesh is as grass and we all got to be prepared for
somep'n of the sort breaking loose...but it seems this here new brother
of his--I didn't know he'd a brother, and I don't suppose you knew he
had a brother. Men are secretive, ain't they!--this brother of his
has left him a parcel of money, and Mr. Faucitt he had to get on the
Wednesday boat quick as he could and go right over to the other side to
look after things. Wind up the estate, I believe they call it. Left in a
awful hurry, he did. Sent his love to you and said he'd write. Funny him
having a brother, now, wasn't it? Not," said Mrs. Meecher, at heart a
reasonable woman, "that folks don't have brothers. I got two myself, one
in Portland, Oregon, and the other goodness knows where he is. But what
I'm trying to say..."

Sally disengaged herself, and went up to her room. For a brief while the
excitement which comes of hearing good news about those of whom we are
fond acted as a stimulant, and she felt almost cheerful. Dear