like it," she thought. "It looks
exactly as if she wanted to frighten him without telling him what has
happened. It could not be worse than it is, even if his sister is dead,
and if that were so, anybody would telegraph that she was very ill, so as
not to let it come on him too sudden. Nothing can be more dreadful than
what he'll think when he reads this. One thing is certain: she meant him
to go when he got it. Yes, indeed!" And a smile came upon her face as she
thought. "She wants him there; that is as plain as daylight."

At this moment a step was heard outside, and the telegram was slipped
into the table drawer. La Fleur arose and approached the open door; there
she saw Phoebe.

"How d'ye do, ma'am?" said that individual. "Do let me come in an' sit
down, for I'm nearly tired to death, an' so cross that I'd like to
fight a cat."

"What has happened to you?" asked La Fleur, when she and her visitor had
seated themselves.

"Nothin'," replied Phoebe, "except that I've been sent on a fool's
errand, an' made to walk all the way from Thorbury, here, an' a longer
an' a dirtier an' a rockier road I never went over. I thought two or
three times that I should just drop. If I'd knowed how stiff my j'ints
would be, I wouldn't 'a' come, no matter what she said."

"She said," repeated La Fleur. "Who?"

"That old Miss Panney!" said Phoebe, with a snap. "She sent me out
here to look after Mike, an' was too stingy even to pay my hack fare.
She wanted me to come day before yesterday, but I couldn't get away
'til to-day."

"Where is Miss Panney?" asked La Fleur, quickly.

"She's gone to the seashore, where the Bannisters an' Miss Miriam is. She
said she'd come here herself if it hadn't been for goin' thar."

"To look after Mike?" asked the other.

"Not 'zactly," said Phoebe, with a grin. "There's other things here she
wanted to look after."

"Upon my word!" exclaimed La Fleur, "I can't imagine what there is on
this place that Miss Panney need concern herself about."

"There isn't no place," said Phoebe, "where there isn't somethin' that
Miss Panney wants to consarn herself in."

La Fleur looked at Phoebe, and then dropped the subject.

"Don't you want a cup of tea?" she asked, a glow of hospitality suddenly
appearing on her face. "That will set you up sooner than anything else,
and perhaps I can find a piece of one of those meat pies your husband
likes so much."

Phoebe was not accustomed to being waited upon by whit