him through the servant.
But the hectic flush of triumph and pleasure which his interview
with the Deputation had called into his cheeks, still colored them as
brightly as ever, when Matthew Grice entered the room.

"You have come, sir," Mr. Thorpe began, "to tell me--"

He hesitated, stammered out another word or two, then stopped. Something
in the expression of the dark and strange face that he saw lowering at
him under the black velvet skull-cap, suspended the words on his lips.
In his present nervous, enfeebled state, any sudden emotions of doubt
or surprise, no matter how slight and temporary in their nature, always
proved too powerful for his self-control, and betrayed themselves in his
speech and manner painfully.

Mat said not a word to break the ominous silence. Was he at that moment,
in very truth, standing face to face with Arthur Carr? Could this
man--so frail and meager, with the narrow chest, the drooping figure,
the effeminate pink tinge on his wan wrinkled cheeks--be indeed the man
who had driven Mary to that last refuge, where the brambles and weeds
grew thick, and the foul mud-pools stagnated in the forgotten corner of
the churchyard?

"You have come, sir," resumed Mr. Thorpe, controlling himself by an
effort which deepened the flush on his face, "to tell me news of my son,
which I am not entirely unprepared for. I heard from him yesterday;
and, though it did not strike me at first, I noticed on referring to his
letter afterwards, that it was not in his own handwriting. My nerves are
not very strong, and they have been tried--pleasurably, most pleasurably
tried--already this morning, by such testimonies of kindness and
sympathy as it does not fall to the lot of many men to earn. May I beg
you, if your news should be of an alarming nature (which God forbid!) to
communicate it as gently--"

"My news is this," Mat broke in: "Your son's been hurt in the head, but
he's got over the worst of it now. He lives with me; I like him; and I
mean to take care of him till he gets on his legs again. That's my news
about your son. But that's not all I've got to say. I bring you news of
somebody else."

"Will you take a seat, and be good enough to explain yourself?"

They sat down at opposite sides of the table, with the Testimonial and
the Address lying between them. The shower outside was beginning to
fall at its heaviest. The splashing noise of the rain and the sound of
running footsteps, as the few foot pas