red to her that she is in danger at all. She protests that she
cannot be ill so long as she does not suffer; but I, who have watched
her day by day, can see only too plainly where the danger lies. And so I
think it best to warn you to be prepared to come to us at once if at any
time I should send for you hurriedly."

"Prepared to go to them!" commented Aimee. "What does that mean? What
can it mean but that our own Dolly is dying, and may slip out of the
world away from us at any moment? Oh, Grif! Grif! what have you done?"

Gowan closed the letter.

"Miss Aimee," he said, "where _is_ Donne?"

Aimee fairly wrung her hands.

"I don't know," she quite wailed. "If I only did--if I only knew where I
could find him!"

"You don't know!" exclaimed Gowan. "And Dolly dying in Switzerland!"

"That is it," she returned. "That is what it all means. If any of us
knew--or if Dolly knew, she would not be dying in Switzerland. It is
because she does not know, that she is dying. She has never seen him
since the night you brought Mollie home. And--and she cannot live
without him."

The whole story was told in very few words after this; and Gowan,
listening, began to understand what the cloud upon the house had meant.
He suffered some sharp enough pangs through the discovery, too. The last
frail cords that had bound him to hope snapped as Aimee poured out her
sorrows. He had never been very sanguine of success, but even after
hoping against hope, his tender fancy for Dolly Crewe had died a very
lingering death; indeed, it was not quite dead yet, but he was beginning
to comprehend this old love story more fully, and he had found himself
forced to do his rival greater justice. He could not see his virtues as
the rest saw them, of course, but he was generous enough to pity him,
and see that his lot had been a terribly hard one.

"There is only one thing to be done," he said, when Aimee had finished
speaking. "We must find him."

"Find him! We cannot find him."

"That remains to be proved," he answered. "Have you been to his
lodgings?"

"Yes," mournfully. "And even to the office! He left his lodgings that
very night, paid his bills, and drove away in a cab with his trunk.
Poor Grif! It was n't a very big trunk. He went to the office the next
morning, and told Mr. Flynn he was going to leave London, and one of
the clerks told Phil there was a 'row' between them. Mr. Flynn was angry
because he had not given due notice of his inten