m reached me I grew
apprehensive. Within the last two weeks I have sent numberless
dispatches to him to his London address, but not one of them has
received a reply--in fact, no one of them has been delivered to him.
The people there do not know where he is. I have cabled to Bombay,
thinking he might have been detained there unexpectedly, but that, too,
has proved of no avail. The Bombay house know nothing of his
whereabouts. He left them as he intended to do in September, and since
then they have heard from him as little as I."

Miss Blake's eager eyes seemed to search the lawyer through and
through. He shifted uneasily in his place.

"It is very difficult to go on," he said, with a nervous, constrained
cough.

"Quick! Quick!" whispered the governess. "Tell me everything
now--this minute. Tell me! Tell me!"

"There is little more to tell," said Mr. Turner sadly. "This afternoon
I received a wire from his London banker, and it seems--that--he,
William Cutler, is--is--dead."

There was a low cry. Miss Blake had leaped to her feet at his words,
and now she was swaying forward as though too faint to stand. The
lawyer sprang forward to save her from falling, but she pushed him away
with both hands almost savagely.

"No, no!" she gasped. "I am strong. I am strong. But--God pity us!
My poor little Nan--and--oh, my poor little Nan!"

She sank back upon the divan and buried her face in her outstretched
arms.

The lawyer rose and went to the window.

Outside the wind blew drearily. The bare trees showed but dimly
through the gathering dusk. It was a bleak, cold outlook. Presently
down the street came a man with a lighted torch and set the gas-flames
to flickering in every lamp along his way.

Mr. Turner watched him until he had passed out of sight--then he turned
about and came back to the sofa once more.

Miss Blake had raised her head and sat staring blankly before her,
dry-eyed, but with an expression far sadder than tears; the dull,
lifeless look of helpless misery that has not yet been touched with
submission.

"Shall I leave you now?" asked the lawyer softly. "Perhaps you would
rather be alone. I can come again--whenever you wish. Perhaps it
would be better for me to come again when you are stronger--better able
to bear it."

She turned her large eyes upon him in a sort of mute supplication. All
the light had gone out of them now. Mr. Turner reseated himself and
continued:

"He d