eheld the prostrate figure of
Doctor Bryan lying covered with dust, his friend bending over him.

In an instant he was by his side. One glance, and his worst fears were
realized--the old gentleman had been mortally injured--he was dying. He
held out his hand when he saw Kendal bending over him, and nodded assent
as his companion briefly and hurriedly related how the terrible accident
had come about.

"I was just about to go for you," said the friend. "The doctor has
something to say to you. Surely it was the work of Providence that you
happened along just now."

Kendal bent over the prostrate form.

"I--I am dying, Harry!" gasped the doctor; "but that--of which we
were--talking--this--afternoon--is--uppermost--in--my--mind.
You--you--wished--me--to--give my--consent--to--to--your--wooing--and
wedding little--Dorothy. I--give--it--to
you--here--and--now--with--my--blessing--for--I--know--she--cares--for
you. Six months--from--to-day--at--noon--my--will--must be read; and on
that day you--must marry her--if ever--aye--you must--be wedded--ere
that noon-hour--shall have waned. Then--then--within that hour--you
shall know--the contents of--my will; and--remember, too,
that--it--is--irrevocable!"

Harry Kendal reeled back, like one dazed by an awful blow.

The suddenness of this affair had taken his breath away. But before he
could raise his voice in protest, or utter one word of the terrible
mistake which the old gentleman was laboring under, Doctor Bryan
breathed his last, and he found himself betrothed, as it were, to
Dorothy, and by the most terrible mistake that ever a man labored under.

CHAPTER VII.

A fortnight had passed since the fatal accident in Brighton Woods, and
life at Gray Gables had once more resumed the even tenor of its regular
routine.

The first words that Doctor Bryan had gasped out to his friend, when he
regained consciousness and found himself fatally injured, were:

"Tell--tell--them at home--that--everything--must go--on--the
same--until--after--my will--has--been read--and that--must not
be--until--six--months--after--my--decease."

The sudden loss of Doctor Bryan, the kind-hearted old gentleman who had
raised her from poverty to great wealth, was a severe blow to Dorothy.
For in that short length of time she had learned to love him, as a
daughter might have done, with all the strength of her passionate,
girlish heart.

The old housekeeper and the servants, who had been in