rt time that Mrs.
Lestrange spent in retirement after her husband's sudden death. He had
not the Appleyard habit of living to be seventy-two, it appeared, and
succumbed to pneumonia, following fatigue and exposure.

His wife's hair turned quickly to an iron-grey, soon after, but she
moved steadily on among the many educational and philanthropic schemes
with which she had begun to fill her time after her daughter's
marriage. Organized charity was developing rapidly, just then, and
Mrs. Lestrange's clear common sense, executive ability and knowledge of
European institutions of the sort made her, with her wealth and
leisure, a leader on New York boards and councils.

It was noted that the year after her widowhood found her less
frequently in the public meetings, less willing to organise new centres
of work, more determined to avoid presidencies and chairmanships. For
this she gave as an excuse the frequent trips abroad, which seemed to
have no special purpose and displeased Wilhelmina, who frequently
offered her a home in Boston.

"I cannot understand why she refuses," said Wilhelmina, on the occasion
of Elliot's last flying trip to America. "The children would love
their granny to be with us, and she could have her own sitting-room.
Can't you persuade her, Elly?"

"I'm afraid not," he answered absently. "You know she's winding up all
those boards and trade-schools and hospitals and things?"

"And a good thing, too," said his sister. "Mamma's done enough for the
community. She ought to settle down. And you see she's going to."

"So that's the way it looks to you, Mina?" he asked, looking
searchingly into her pale blue eyes, and shrugging his shoulders
slightly.

"Gracious, Elliot, if you know so much more about mamma than I do, why
don't you ask her to live with you and Maddelina?" she suggested
sharply.

"It wouldn't do any good--she'd never think of it," he answered simply.

"Well, of course, she and Maddelina..."

"Exactly," he agreed with his teasing foreign smile.

"And I'll tell you another thing," she went on; "all these sudden trips
about the country and to Europe--what is the sense? Mamma will be
fifty in a few days, and anything might happen----"

"Oh, nonsense, Mina," he laughed at her. "Mamma is stronger than
either of us, and you know it."

"Of course she's never been ill," his sister admitted. "But all this
travel makes her nervous, just the same. She's not like herself. Why,
yes