says this morning," she explained, placing her delicate
finger on the word she so eagerly quoted. "That means a week ago
Wednesday, the same day on which the printed slip recording his death
was found on my cushion. Do you not see something very strange in this?"

I did; but, before I ventured to express myself on this subject,
I desired her to tell me what she had learned in her visit to
Philadelphia.

Her answer was simple and straightforward.

"But little more than you find in this telegram. He died in his room.
He was found lying on the floor near the bell button, which he had
evidently risen to touch. One hand was clenched on his chest, but his
face wore a peaceful look as if death had come too suddenly to cause him
much suffering. His bed was undisturbed; he had died before retiring,
possibly in the act of packing his trunk, for it was found nearly ready
for the expressman. Indeed, there was every evidence of his intention to
leave on an early morning train. He had even desired to be awakened at
six o'clock; and it was his failure to respond to the summons of the
bell-boy, which led to so early a discovery of his death. He had never
complained of any distress in breathing, and we had always considered
him a perfectly healthy man; but there was no reason for assigning any
other cause than heart-failure to his sudden death, and so the burial
certificate was made out to that effect, and I was allowed to bring
him home and bury him in our vault at Wood-lawn. But--" and here her
earnestness dried up the tears which had been flowing freely during
this recital of her husband's lonely death and sad burial,--"do you not
think an investigation should be made into a death preceded by a
false obituary notice? For I found when I was in Philadelphia that no
paragraph such as I had found pinned to my cushion had been inserted in
any paper there, nor had any other man of the same name ever registered
at the Colonnade, much less died there."

"Have you this notice with you?" I asked.

She immediately produced it, and while I was glancing it over remarked:

"Some persons would give a superstitious explanation to the whole
matter; think I had received a supernatural warning and been satisfied
with what they would call a spiritual manifestation. But I have not a
bit of such folly in my composition. Living hands set up the type and
printed the words which gave me so deathly a shock; and hands, with a
real purpose in them, cut it