d. But she is also puzzled, because it seems
strange that anything should come between her and Raymond at a time like
this--even the terrible death of dear Daniel. She has been counting on
hearing from him, and to-day she felt quite sure he would see her."

"Is the wedding put off then?"

"I trust not. She is to hear from him to-morrow."

* * * * *

Raymond kept his word and before the end of the following day Sabina
received a letter. She had alternated, since Daniel's sudden death,
between fits of depression and elation. She was cast down, because no
communication of any kind had reached her since Raymond hurried off on
the day of the accident; and she was elated, because the future must
certainly be much more splendid for Raymond now.

She explained his silence easily enough, for much work devolved upon
him; but when he did not come to see her on the day of the funeral, she
was seriously perturbed and grew excited, unstrung and full of
forebodings. Her mother heard from those who had seen him that Raymond
appeared to be abstracted and 'kept himself to himself' entirely; which
led to anxiety on her part also. The letter defined the position.

"MY DEAREST SABINA,--A thing like the death of my brother, with all that
it means to me, cannot happen without having very far-reaching results.
You may have noticed for some time before this occurred that I felt
uneasy about the future--not only for your sake, but my own--and I had
long felt that we were doing a very doubtful thing to marry. However, as
circumstances were such then, that I should have been in the gutter if I
did not marry, I was going to do so. There seemed to be no choice,
though I felt all the time that I was not doing the fair thing to you,
or myself.

"Now the case is altered and I can do the fair thing to you and myself,
because circumstances make it possible. I have got tons of money now,
and it is not too much to say that I want you to share it. But not on
the old understanding. I hate and loathe matrimony and everything to do
with it, and now that it is possible to avoid the institution, I intend
to do so.

"What you have got to do is to put a lot of stupid, conventional ideas
out of your mind, and not worry about other people, and the drivel they
talk, or the idiotic things they say. We weren't conventional last year,
so why the dickens should we be this? I'm awfully keen about you,
Sabina, and awfully keen about