e, quite vainly, was prepared to certify to the cause of
death, and Stafford's feelings were spared thus far. Someone high in
authority suggested the idea of a public funeral, through Howard, whom
alone Stafford saw, but Stafford declined the honour, and the first
Earl of Highcliffe was carried to his last rest as quietly as
circumstances would permit.

The press and the men of the city, with whom the dead man had worked,
kept silence about the catastrophe that had happened until after the
funeral; then rumours arose, at first in whispers and then more loudly,
and paragraphs and leaderettes appeared in the papers hinting at
something wrong in connection with Lord Highcliffe's last great scheme,
and calling for an enquiry.

The morning after the funeral, Howard found Stafford sitting in a
darkened room of the great house, his head in his hand, a morning paper
lying open on the table before him. He raised his white and haggard
face as Howard entered and took his friend's hand in silence. Howard
glanced at the paper and bit his lip.

"Yes," said Stafford, "I have been reading this. You have seen it?"

Howard nodded.

"You know what it means? I want you to tell me. I have been putting off
the question day by day, selfishly; I could not face it until--until he
was buried. But I can put it off no longer; I must know now. What was
that cablegram which they brought him just before--which you tried to
keep from him?"

"You have not read any of the newspapers?" asked Howard, gravely,
bracing himself for the task from which his soul shrank.

Stafford shook his head.

"No; I have not been able to. I have not been able to do anything,
scarcely to think. The blow came so suddenly that I have felt like a
man in a dream--dazed, bewildered. If I have been able to think at all
it is of his love for me, his goodness to me. There never was such a
father--" His voice broke, and he made a gesture with his hand. "Even
now I do not realise that he is gone, that I shall never see him again.
I was so fond of him, so proud of him! Why do you hesitate? If it is
bad news, and I suppose it is, do you think I can't bear it? Howard,
there is nothing that you could tell me that could move me, or hurt me.
Fate has dealt me its very worst blow in taking him from me, and
nothing else can matter. The cablegram, this that the paper says, what
does it mean?"

Howard sat on the table so that he could lay his hand, with a friend's
loving and consol