neteen or twenty at
the most. A handsome lad too; I should fancy he was not English."

"Is there any clue as to who did it?" questioned the governess.

"Not that I know of yet. The police have had no time to work, you see,"
he reminded her gently.

"Ah, yes; I was forgetting, sir! Have they taken it away?"

"From here? Not yet. It must be removed to the mortuary to await the
inquest, of course." He hesitated, and then added, in a voice which, in
spite of all his efforts, was almost tender, "You are not afraid of its
being here, are you?"

"Afraid!" A smile, as curious as fleeting, parted the beautiful lips of
Alexia Boucheafen. "No, I am not afraid. I asked, because---- Sir, may
I see it?"

"See it?" George Brudenell was so startled and shocked that he doubted
if he had heard aright. "Surely, Mademoiselle, you do not mean what you
say?"

"Yes--if I may." She spoke quite steadily and coldly. "I should like to
see him--this poor murdered boy, if I may. I have never seen death, and
I should like to know how it looks to be stabbed to the heart."

Surely a strange uncanny fancy in this lovely young creature! There was
something morbid about it, which the Doctor did not like; it almost
repelled him until he recollected how nearly this very fate had been
hers. He did not like assenting, but already he was so weak with regard
to her that he could refuse her nothing. So he said reluctantly:

"Come now then, if you wish."

Quite quietly, only bending her head by way of reply, she followed him
out of the room and down-stairs to an apartment on a level with the
hall, where the murdered man had been carried. On the threshold he
stopped, looking at her doubtfully.

"Mademoiselle, are you sure of yourself? This is no sight for you."

"Yes," she answered steadily. "Pray do not fear, sir; I shall not
faint. Let me see."

He stood aside and let her enter the darkened room. The blinds were
drawn down, cooling liquids had been sprinkled about, there was nothing
to horrify, nothing to disgust. The rigid figure, covered with white
drapery, lay stretched upon the table. Without faltering, Alexia
advanced, and, removing with a steady hand the cloth at the upper end,
looked at the dead face thus revealed.

A boy's face, indeed, beautiful even in death, smooth-cheeked, the dark
down on the delicate upper lip hardly perceptible, the black hair
clustering upon the white forehead almost like a child's. The governess
looked at it l