ression of absorbed
and acute melancholy. When he reached the end of the path, he looked
round, at a loss, then turned, as if on an inefficient pivot, and set
himself in motion again. Edwin was troubled by this singular episode.
And yet his reason argued with his instinct to the effect that he ought
not to be troubled. Evidently the sturdy Darius was not ill. Nothing
serious could be the matter. He had been harrowed and fatigued by the
funeral; no more. In another day, doubtless, he would be again the
harsh employer astoundingly concentrated in affairs and impervious to
the emotional appeal of aught else. Nevertheless he made a strange
sight, parading his excessive sadness there in the garden.

A knock at Edwin's door! He was startled. "Hold on!" he cried, went to
the door, and cautiously opened it. Maggie was on the mat.

"Here's Auntie Clara!" she said in a whisper, perturbed. "She's come
about father. Shall you be long?"

"About father? What about father?"

"It seems she saw him last night. He called there. And she was
anxious."

"Oh! I see!" Edwin affected to be relieved. Maggie nodded, also
affecting, somewhat eagerly, to be relieved. But neither of them was
relieved. Auntie Clara calling at half-past eight! Auntie Clara
neglecting that which she never neglected--the unalterable and divinely
appointed rites for the daily cleansing and ordering of her abode!

"I shall be down in ten secs," said he. "Father's in the garden," he
added, almost kindly. "Seems all right."

"Yes," said Maggie, with cheerfulness, and went. He closed the door.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

TWO.

Mrs Hamps was in the drawing-room. She had gone into the drawing-room
because it was more secret, better suited to conversation of an
exquisite privacy than the dining-room--a public resort at that hour.
Edwin perceived at once that she was savouring intensely the strangeness
of the occasion, inflating its import and its importance to the largest
possible.

"Good morning, dear," she greeted him in a low and significant tone. "I
felt I must come up at once. I couldn't fancy any breakfast till I'd
been up, so I put on my bonnet and mantle and just came. It's no use
fighting against what you feel you must do."

"But--"

"Hasn't Maggie told you? Your father called to see me last night just
after I'd gone upstairs. In fact I'd begun to get ready for bed. I
heard