smoke.

As Quincy walked down the road towards the Pettengill house his mind was
busy with his thoughts.

"To think," said he to himself, "that while I was listening to those
stories, to call them by no worse name, at the dinner table, the woman I
love was witnessing the death agony and listening to the last words of a
dear friend--the woman who's going to leave her a fortune. Now that she
knows that she's an heiress, I can speak; she never would have listened
to me, knowing that she was poor and I was rich, and I never could have
spoken to her with that secret in my mind that Mrs. Putnam told me--that
she was going to leave her all her money. I am so glad for Alice's sake,
even if she does not love me. She can have the best medical attendance
now, and she will be able to give all her time to her literary work, for
which she has a decided genius. Won't she be delighted when I tell her
that Leopold has placed all her stories and wants her to write a book?"

As he reached the front gate he saw Hiram driving up the road and Alice
was with him. As Hiram stopped, Quincy stepped forward and took Alice's
hand to assist her in alighting from the buggy.

"Oh, Mr. Sawyer," said she, "have you heard that Mrs. Putnam is dead,
and I've had such a terrible day with her?"

Her nervous system had been wrought to its highest tension by what she
had undergone during the past six hours. She burst into a flood of
tears. Then she tottered and would have fallen if Quincy had not grasped
her.

"Can you walk?" he asked.

She took a step forward, but he saw at a glance that she had not
sufficient strength to reach her room.

"Open the gate, Hiram. Then give the door-bell a good sharp ring, so
that Mandy will come quickly."

He took her in his arms and went up the path, by the astonished Mandy,
and upstairs to Alice's room, where he laid her tenderly upon her bed.
Turning to Mandy, who had followed close at his heels, he said:

"She is not sick, only nervous and worn out. If you need me, call me."

He went into his own room and thanked Heaven that he had been at hand to
render her the service that she so much needed. When he went down to
supper Mandy told him that Miss Alice was asleep, and she guessed she'd
be all right in the morning.

CHAPTER XXXI.

AN INHERITANCE.

Quincy reached his room at Mrs. Hawkins's boarding house about midnight
of the day of the town meeting. About the same hour Mrs. Heppy Putnam
awoke from