ote.

"Mrs. Truscott said I was to find you at once, sir."

"Pardon me, ladies, I will see what this is," he said, opening it
leisurely with pleasant anticipations of an invitation for tea. He read
two lines: the color left his face. Amaze, consternation, distress, were
all pictured there in an instant.

"Excuse me! I must go to Mrs. Truscott at once," he said, and went
limping eagerly, rapidly up the walk.

"Why, what can she want?" asked one of the astonished ladies.

"I cannot imagine. Don't you think we--some of us ought to go and see if
anything is the matter?"

"Nonsense! It is nothing where we would be of any service. What makes me
wonder is what she can want of Mr. Ray; what made _him_ look so
startled?" (A pause.)

"Didn't Mrs. Turner say he was very attentive to her in Arizona, and
that she threw him over for Captain Truscott?" (Tentatively.)

"It wasn't that at _all!_" promptly interrupted another, with the
positive conviction of womankind. "Mrs. Wilkins told me all about it,
and I _know_. It was another girl Mr. Ray was in love with, and--no, it
was Mrs.--somebody--Tanner, whose husband was killed, and Mrs. Truscott
_did_ break an engagement with somebody----"

"I didn't know about _that_. What I say is that Mr. Ray was desperately
in love with Mrs. Truscott, because----"

And by this time all four were talking at once, and the thread of
conversation became involved.

But Ray had hurried on. What he read had indeed startled him.

"Come to me the moment you get this. I am in fearful trouble.

"G. P. T."

He knocked at the door, and she herself opened it and led him into the
parlor. She was pale as death, her eyes distended with misery, every
feature quivering, every nerve trembling with fright and violent
emotion. She began madly walking up and down the little room wringing
her hands, shivering, gasping for breath.

"In heaven's name, what has happened?"

"Oh! I cannot tell you! I cannot tell you! It is too fearful! Oh, Mr.
Ray! Mr. Ray!"

"But you must tell me, Mrs. Truscott. Try and control yourself. Is
anything wrong with Jack?"

"Oh, no--no!"

"Good God! Has there been an accident? Has anything happened to Miss
Sanford?"

"No--no--no! It's only me!" she answered, hysterically inaccurate in her
wild wretchedness. "I'll tell you.--It is that awful man, Mr. Gleason.
He has been here and----"

Ray's face set like stone. The words came through clinched teeth