and went to
her cheek.

"Not on account of that only. You have had a serious illness quite apart
from that injury. But you are better; you are almost well--well enough to
go home, if you will."

"I cannot go home--not just yet. I'm--I'm not strong enough. But we
shouldn't be here alone without some man to look after us. Miss Huckins,
_where is my brother_?"

At this question, uttered with emphasis, with anxiety--with indignation
even--Miss Unwin felt the emotion she had so successfully subdued up to
this moment, betray itself in her voice as she answered, with a quiet
motion towards the elevator: "Let us go up to our room. There I will
answer all your questions."

But Carmel, with the waywardness of her years--or perhaps, with deeper
reasoning powers than the other would be apt to attribute to her--broke
softly away from Miss Unwin's detaining hand, and walking directly into
the office, looked about for the newspaper stand. Miss Unwin,
over-anxious not to make a scene, followed, but did not seek to deter
her, until they were once again by themselves in the centre of the room.
Then she ventured to speak again:

"We have all the papers in our room. Come up, and let me read them to
you."

But Fate was making ready its great stroke. Just as Carmel seemed about
to yield to this persuasion, some lingering doubt drew her eyes again to
the stand, just at the very moment a boy stepped into view with the
evening bulletin, on which had just been written these words:

The Last Juror Obtained in the Trial of Arthur Cumberland for the Murder
of His Sister, Adelaide.

Carmel saw, and stood--a breathless image of horror. A couple of
gentlemen came running; but the nurse waved them back, and herself caught
Carmel and upheld her, in momentary dread of another mental, if not
physical, collapse.

But Carmel had come back into the world of consciousness to stay.
Accepting her nurse's support, but giving no sign of waning faculties or
imperfect understanding of what she had seen, she spoke quite clearly and
with her eyes fixed upon Miss Unwin:

"So that is why I am here, away from all my friends. Was I too ill to be
told? Couldn't you make me know what was happening? You or the doctors
or--or anybody?"

"You were much too ill," protested the nurse, leading her towards the
elevator and so by degrees to her room. "I tried to arouse you after the
crisis of your illness had passed; but you seemed to have forgotten
everything whic