o do that, if anything awkward
happened. Then it just occurred to me that I would telephone to the
Deanery. The Dean was out here yesterday afternoon, ma'am, and Mrs.
Guthrie liked him very much. Long ago, when she lived in London, she
used to know the parents of the young gentleman to whom Miss Haworth is
engaged to be married. They had quite a long pleasant talk about it all.
I had meant, ma'am, if you'll excuse my telling you, to telephone to you
next, and then I heard as how you were coming here. The Major did tell
me the morning he went away that if Mrs. Guthrie seemed really ailing, I
was to ask you to be kind enough to come and see her. Of course I knew
where he was going, and that he'd be away for a long time, though he
didn't say anything to me about it. But he knew that I knew, right
enough!"

"Had Mrs. Guthrie no near relation at all--no sister, no nieces?" asked
Mrs. Otway, in a low voice. Again she felt she was living in a dreamland
of secret, poignant emotions shadowed by a great suspense and fear.

"No. Nothing of the kind," said Howse confidently. "And on Major
Guthrie's side there was only distant cousins. It's a peculiar kind of
situation altogether, ma'am, if I may say so. Quite a long time may pass
before we know whether the Major is alive or dead. 'Wounded and
missing'? We all knows as how there is only one thing worse that could
be than that--don't we, ma'am?"

"I don't quite know what you mean, Howse."

"Why, the finding and identifying of the Major's body, ma'am."

* * * * *

Through the still, silent house there came a loud, long, insistent
ringing--that produced by an old-fashioned front door bell.

"I expect it's Mr. Allen," exclaimed Howse. "He wired as how he'd be
down by two o'clock." And a few moments later a tall, dark, clean-shaven
man was shaking hands, with the words, "I think you must be Mrs. Otway?"

There was little business doing just then among London solicitors, and
so Mr. Allen had come down himself. He had a very friendly regard for
his wounded and missing client, and his recollection of the interview
which had taken place on the day before Major Guthrie had sailed with
the First Division of the Expeditionary Force was still very vivid in
his mind.

His client had surprised him very much. He had thought he knew
everything about Major Guthrie and Major Guthrie's business, but before
receiving the latter's instructions about his new will h