tunately drew their attention to me, and
after an instant of silent contemplation of my distracted countenance,
Frank said, as though he were the elder by the forty years which
separated us:

"'You have listened to Mrs. Postlethwaite's wishes. You will respect
them of course.'"

That was all. He knew and she knew that I was to be trusted; but neither
of them has ever known why.

A month later her child came, and was welcomed as though it were the
first to bear his name. It was a boy, and their satisfaction was so
great that I looked to see their old affection revive. But it had been
cleft at the root, and nothing could restore it to life. They loved the
child; I have never seen evidence of greater parental passion than they
both displayed, but there their feelings stopped. Towards each other
they were cold. They did not even unite in worship of their treasure.
They gloated over him and planned for him, but always apart. He was a
child in a thousand, and as he developed, the mother especially,
nursed all her energies for the purpose of ensuring for him a future
commensurate with his talents. Never a very conscientious woman, and
alive to the advantages of wealth as demonstrated by the power wielded
by her rich brother-in-law, she associated all the boy's prospects with
money, great money, such money as Andrew had accumulated, and now had at
his disposal for his natural heirs.

"Hence came her great temptation,--a temptation to which she yielded, to
the lasting trouble of us all. Of this I must now make confession though
it kills me to do so, and will soon kill her. The deeds of the past
do not remain buried, however deep we dig their graves, but rise in an
awful resurrection when we are old--old--"

Silence. Then a tremulous renewal of his painful speech.

Violet held her breath to listen. Possibly the doctor, hidden in the
darkest corner of the room, did so also.

"I never knew how she became acquainted with the terms of her
brother-in-law's will. He certainly never confided them to her, and as
certainly the lawyer who drew up the document never did. But that she
was well aware of its tenor is as positive a fact as that I am the most
wretched man alive tonight. Otherwise, why the darksome deed into which
she was betrayed when both the brothers lay dying among strangers, of a
dreadful accident?"

"I was witness to that deed. I had accompanied her on her hurried
ride and was at her side when she entered the inn