he servants told her at once that something was happening
at Mr. Corvet's. They had heard shouts and had seen a man pounding
upon the door there, but they had not taken it upon themselves to go
over there. She had told the chauffeur to wait with the motor and had
run at once to the telephone and called Alan; his attempt to put her
off made her certain that what had happened was not finished but was
still going on. Her anxiety and the sense of their responsibility for
Alan overrode at once all other thought. She told the servants to call
her father at the office and tell him something was wrong at Mr.
Corvet's; then she called her maid and hurried out to the motor.

"To Mr. Corvet's--quickly!" she directed.

Looking through the front doors of her car as it turned into Astor
Street, she saw a young man, carrying a doctor's case, run up the steps
of Corvet's house. This, quite unreasonably since she had just talked
with Alan, added to her alarm; she put her hand on the catch of the
door and opened it a little so as to be ready to leave the car as soon
as it stopped. As the car drew to the curb, she sprang out, and
stopped only long enough to tell the chauffeur to be attentive and to
wait ready to come into the house, if he was called.

The man with the bag--Constance recognized him as a young doctor who
was starting in practice in the neighborhood--was just being admitted
as she and her maid reached the steps. Alan stood holding the door
open and yet blocking entrance when she came up. The sight of him told
her that it was not physical hurt that happened to him, but his face
showed her there had been basis for her fright.

"You must not come in!" he denied her; but she followed the doctor so
that Alan could not close the door upon her. He yielded then, and she
and her maid went on into the hall.

She started as she saw the figure upon the couch in the library, and as
the sound of its heavy breathing reached her; and the wild fancy which
had come to her when the servants had told her of what was going on--a
fancy that Uncle Benny had come back--was banished instantly.

Alan led her into the room across from the library.

"You shouldn't have come in," he said. "I shouldn't have let you in;
but--you saw him."

"Yes."

"Do you know him?"

"Know him?" She shook her head.

"I mean, you've never seen him before?"

"No."

"His name is Luke--he speaks of himself by that name. Did you ever
hear my father