ce.

"Oh, it's nothing you could help, sir, I fully understand that. You see,
my sister used to be a pupil of your brother's, and it seems you favor
him; and when the switch engine threw a light on your face it startled
her."

Everett wheeled about in his chair. "Oh! _Katharine_ Gaylord! Is it
possible! Now it's you who have given me a turn. Why, I used to know her
when I was a boy. What on earth--"

"Is she doing here?" said Gaylord, grimly filling out the pause. "You've
got at the heart of the matter. You knew my sister had been in bad
health for a long time?"

"No, I had never heard a word of that. The last I knew of her she was
singing in London. My brother and I correspond infrequently and seldom
get beyond family matters. I am deeply sorry to hear this. There are
more reasons why I am concerned than I can tell you."

The lines in Charley Gaylord's brow relaxed a little.

"What I'm trying to say, Mr. Hilgarde, is that she wants to see you. I
hate to ask you, but she's so set on it. We live several miles out of
town, but my rig's below, and I can take you out anytime you can go."

"I can go now, and it will give me real pleasure to do so," said
Everett, quickly. "I'll get my hat and be with you in a moment."

When he came downstairs Everett found a cart at the door, and Charley
Gaylord drew a long sigh of relief as he gathered up the reins and
settled back into his own element.

"You see, I think I'd better tell you something about my sister before
you see her, and I don't know just where to begin. She traveled
in Europe with your brother and his wife, and sang at a lot of his
concerts; but I don't know just how much you know about her."

"Very little, except that my brother always thought her the most gifted
of his pupils, and that when I knew her she was very young and very
beautiful and turned my head sadly for a while."

Everett saw that Gaylord's mind was quite engrossed by his grief. He was
wrought up to the point where his reserve and sense of proportion had
quite left him, and his trouble was the one vital thing in the world.
"That's the whole thing," he went on, flicking his horses with the whip.

"She was a great woman, as you say, and she didn't come of a great
family. She had to fight her own way from the first. She got to Chicago,
and then to New York, and then to Europe, where she went up like
lightning, and got a taste for it all; and now she's dying here like a
rat in a hole, out of her