her father, one to
her mother and one to Bernard. Her letter to Bernard had to be torn
up and re-written time and again, for fast falling tears spoiled it
almost as fast as she wrote. At last she succeeded in finishing his
letter to her satisfaction.

At eventide she came down stairs and with her mother, sat on the rear
porch and saw the sun glide gently out of sight, without a struggle,
without a murmur. Her eye lingered long on the spot where the sun had
set and watched the hidden sun gradually steal all of his rays from
the skies to use them in another world. Drawing a heavy sigh, she
lovingly caught her mother around the waist and led her into the
parlor. Viola now became all gayety, but her mother could see that it
was forced. She took a seat at the piano and played and sang. Her rich
soprano voice rang out clear and sweet and passers by paused to listen
to the glorious strains. Those who paused to hear her sing passed
on feeling sad at heart. Beginning in somewhat low tones, her voice
gradually swelled and the full, round tones full of melody and pathos
seemed to lift up and bear one irresistibly away.

Viola's mother sat by and looked with tender solicitude on her
daughter singing and playing as she had never before in her life.
"What did it mean?" she asked herself. When Viola's father came from
the postoffice, where he was a clerk, Viola ran to him joyously. She
pulled him into the parlor and sat on his knee stroking his chin and
nestling her head on his bosom. She made him tell her tales as he did
when she was a child and she would laugh, but her laugh did not have
its accustomed clear, golden ring.

Kissing them good night, she started up to her bed room. When at the
head of the stairway she returned and without saying a word kissed her
parents again.

When she was gone, the parents looked at each other and shook their
heads. They knew that Viola was feeling keenly on account of something
but felt that her cheerful nature would soon throw it off. But the
blade was in her heart deeper than they knew. Viola entered her room,
fastening the door behind her. She went to her desk, secured the three
letters that she had written and placed them on the floor a few inches
apart in a position where they would attract immediate attention upon
entering the room. She then lay down upon her bed and put one arm
across her bosom. With her other hand she turned on the gas jet by the
head of her bed. She then placed this o