n't look like that! It wasn't your fault. It
was bound to come. I've foreseen it for some little time. I told him it
was madness to go out riding as he did; but he wouldn't listen to me.
Avery, I say! Avery!" His voice sank to an undertone.

She forced her stiff lips to smile faintly in answer to the concern it
held. With an effort she commanded herself.

"What of Piers?" she said.

He stood up again with a sharp gesture, and turned from her to answer
Miss Whalley's eager questions.

"Surely it is very sudden!" the latter was saying. "How did it happen?
Will there be an inquest?"

"There will not," said Tudor curtly. "I have been attending the Squire,
for some time, and I knew that sooner or later this would happen. The
Vicar is not here?" He turned to Avery. "I promised to look in on him on
my way back. Shall I find him at the Vicarage?"

He was gone almost before she could answer, and Avery was left on the
seat by the door, staring before her with a wildly throbbing heart, still
asking herself with a curious insistence, "What of Piers? What of Piers?"

Miss Whalley surveyed her with marked disapproval. She considered it
great presumption on Avery's part to be upset by such a matter, and her
attitude said as much as she walked with a stately air down the church
and commenced her own self-appointed task of decorating the pulpit.

Avery did not stir for several seconds; and when she did it was to go to
the open door and stand there looking out into the spring sunshine. She
felt strangely incapable of grasping what had happened. She could not
realize that that dominant personality that had striven with her only
yesterday--only yesterday--had passed utterly away in a few hours. It
seemed incredible, beyond the bounds of possibility. Again and again Sir
Beverley's speech and look returned to her. How emphatic he had been,
how resolutely determined to attain his end! He had discharged his
obligation, as he had said. He had paid his last debt. And in the
payment of it he had laid upon her a burden which she had felt compelled
to accept.

Would it prove too much for her, she wondered? Had she yet again taken a
false step that could never be retraced? Again the thought of Piers went
through her, piercing her like a sword. Piers alone! Piers in trouble!
She wished that Dr. Tudor had answered her question even though she
regretted having asked it. How would he bear his solitude, she wondered
with an aching heart; and a