I don't want to insist, but she
ought, if she is able, to go to the city house, for a few hours, at
least."

"City house!" Heppie yelled in her ear.

"It ought to be cleaned," Miss Letitia acquiesced, "and fresh curtains
put up. Jane would have been in her element; she was always handy at a
funeral. And don't let them get one of those let-down-at-the-side
coffins. They're leaky."

Luckily Margery did not notice this.

"I was going to suggest," I put in hurriedly, "that my brother's wife
would be only too glad to help, and if Miss Fleming will go into town
with me, I am sure Edith would know just what to do. She isn't curious
and she's very capable."

Margery threw me a grateful glance, grateful, I think, that I could
understand how, under the circumstances, a stranger was more acceptable
than curious friends could be.

"Mr. Knox's sister-in-law!" interpreted Heppie.

"When you have to say the letter 's,' turn your head away," Miss Letitia
rebuked her. "Well, I don't object, if Knox's sister-in-law don't." She
had an uncanny way of expanding Heppie's tabloid speeches. "You can take
my white silk shawl to lay over the body, but be sure to bring it back.
We may need it for Jane."

If the old lady's chin quivered a bit, while Margery threw her arms
around her, she was mightily ashamed of it. But Heppie was made of
weaker stuff. She broke into a sudden storm of sobs and left the room,
to stick her head in the door a moment after.

"Kidneys or chops?" she shouted almost belligerently.

"Kidneys," Miss Letitia replied in kind.

Wardrop went with us to the station at noon, but he left us there, with
a brief remark that he would be up that night. After I had put Margery
in a seat, I went back to have a word with him alone. He was standing
beside the train, trying to light a cigarette, but his hands shook
almost beyond control, and after the fourth match he gave it up. My
minute for speech was gone. As the train moved out I saw him walking
back along the platform, paying no attention to anything around him.
Also, I had a fleeting glimpse of a man loafing on a baggage truck, his
hat over his eyes. He was paring an apple with a penknife, and dropping
the peelings with careful accuracy through a crack in the floor of the
platform.

I had arranged over the telephone that Edith should meet the train, and
it was a relief to see that she and Margery took to each other at once.
We drove to the house immediately, and after