her satchel on the front seat with the
driver, and got up beside the driver himself. She had drawn her veil
over her face, and during the drive sat silent and motionless.

"Can you make it?" asked Bennett of the driver, watch in hand. The time
was of the shortest, but the driver put the whip to his horses and, at a
run, they reached the railway station a few moments ahead of time.
Bennett told the driver to wait, and while Lloyd remained in her place
he bought her ticket for the City. Then he went to the telegraph office
and sent a peremptory despatch to the house on Calumet Square.

A few moments later the train had come and gone, an abrupt eruption of
roaring iron and shrieking steam. Bennett was left on the platform
alone, watching it lessen to a smoky blur where the rails converged
toward the horizon. For an instant he stood watching, watching a
resistless, iron-hearted force whirling her away, out of his reach, out
of his life. Then he shook himself, turning sharply about.

"Back to the doctor's house, now," he commanded the driver; "on the run,
you understand."

But the other protested. His horses were all but exhausted. Twice they
had covered that distance at top speed and under the whip. He refused to
return. Bennett took the young man by the arm and lifted him from his
seat to the ground. Then he sprang to his place and lashed the horses to
a gallop.

When he arrived at Dr. Pitts's house he did not stop to tie the horses,
but threw the reins over their backs and entered the front hall, out of
breath and panting. But the doctor, during Bennett's absence, had
returned, and it was he who met him half-way up the stairs.

"How is he?" demanded Bennett. "I have sent for another nurse; she will
be out here on the next train. I wired from the station."

"The only objection to that," answered the doctor, looking fixedly at
him, "is that it is not necessary. Mr. Ferriss has just died."

VII.

Throughout her ride from Medford to the City it was impossible for
Lloyd, so great was the confusion in her mind, to think connectedly. She
had been so fiercely shocked, so violently shattered and weakened, that
for a time she lacked the power and even the desire to collect and to
concentrate her scattering thoughts. For the time being she felt, but
only dimly, that a great blow had fallen, that a great calamity had
overwhelmed her, but so extraordinary was the condition of her mind that
more than once she found he