ed a personal opportunity in the prospect of this guest
for the evening. He must have counsel, he was thinking. He could not act
on his own responsibility in this emergency that had suddenly confronted
him. He was still too overwhelmed by the strange experience he had
encountered, too shaken. This physician was a man of intelligence, of
skill in his chosen profession, necessarily a man worth while in many
ways. He was an intimate friend of the Keene family, and might the more
heartily lend a helping hand. The thought, the hope, cleared Gordon's
brow, but still the impress of the stress of the afternoon was so marked
that the girl was moved to comment in her brusque way as they stood
together on the cool, fern-embowered veranda.

"Why, Mr. Gordon," she exclaimed in surprise, "you have no idea how
strange you look! You must have overworked awfully this afternoon. Why,
you look as if you had seen a ghost!"

To her amazement, he recoiled abruptly. Involuntarily, he passed his
hand over his face, as if seeking to obliterate the traces she had
deciphered. Then, with an obvious effort, he recovered a show of
equanimity; he declared that it was only because he was so tousled in
contrast with her fresh finery that she thought he looked supernaturally
horrible! He would go upstairs forthwith and array himself anew.

Gordon proved himself a true prophet, for Rigdon came to dine. With the
postprandial cigars, the two gentlemen, at Gordon's suggestion, repaired
to the sitting-room to smoke, instead of joining their hostess on the
veranda, where tobacco was never interdicted. Indeed, they did not come
forth thence for nearly two hours, and were palpably embarrassed when
Geraldine declared in bewilderment, gazing at them in the lamplight
that fell from within, through one of the great windows, that now _both_
looked as if they had seen a ghost!

Despite their efforts to sustain the interest of the conversation,
they were obviously distrait, and had a proclivity to fall into sudden
silences, and Mrs. Keene found them amazingly unresponsive and dull.
Thus it was that she rose as if to retire for the night while the hour
was still early. In fact, she intended to utilize the opportunity to
have some dresses of the first mourning outfit tried on, for which the
patient maid was now awaiting her.

"I leave you a charming substitute," she said in making her excuses.
"Geraldine need not come in yet--it is not late."

Her withdrawal seeme