n his knees before the keyhole when he suddenly stiffened
himself and, turning towards the lawyer, cried with a new strain of
loftiness in his tone:

"You. You shall do the looking, only promise to be very minute in your
description of her behavior. It's a great trust I repose in you. See that
you honor it."

The revulsion of feeling caused in the lawyer by this show of confidence
was not perceptible. But it softened his step as well as his manner as he
crossed to do the other's bidding.

The remaining two stood at his side breathless, waiting for his first
word.

It came in a whisper:

"She's approaching her room. She looks tired. Her eyes are stealing this
way;--no, they are resting on her own door. She sees the sign. She stands
staring at it, but not like a person who has ever seen it before. It's
the stare of an uneducated woman who runs upon something she does not
understand. Now she touches it with one finger and glances up and down
the hall with a doubtful shake of the head. Now she is running to another
door, now to another. She is looking to see if this scrawl is to be found
anywhere else; she even casts her eye this way--I feel like leaving my
post. If I do, you may know that she's coming--No, she's back at her own
door and--gentlemen, her bringing up or rather coming up asserts itself.
She has put her palm to her mouth and is vigorously rubbing off the
marks."

The next instant Mr. Harper rose. "She's gone into her room," said he.
"Listen and you will hear her key click in the lock."

Ransom sank into a seat; Hazen had walked to the window. Presently he
turned.

"I am convinced," said he. "I will not trouble you gentlemen further.
Mr. Ransom, I condole with you upon your loss. My sister was a woman of
uncommon gifts."

Mr. Ransom bowed. He had no words for this man at a moment of such
extreme excitement. He did not even note the latent sting hidden in the
other's seeming tribute to Georgian. But the lawyer did and Hazen
perceived that he did, for pausing in his act of crossing the room, he
leaned for a moment on the table with his eyes down, then quickly
raising them remarked to that gentleman:

"I am going to leave by the midnight train for New York. To-morrow I
shall be on the ocean. Will it be transgressing all rules of propriety
for me to ask the purport of my sister's will? It is a serious matter to
me, sir. If she has left me anything--"

"She has _not_," emphasized the lawyer.

A shado