pened the note.

If you can find a reliable messenger [said the note, without preamble],
I wish you would get those orphanage plans to me at Thornton's office
before six. I have to meet him there at four. The matter is really
important, or I would not trouble you. I'll dine with Thayer at the
club. J.F. The pretty hallway and the glaring strip of light beyond
the open garden door swam suddenly before Susanna's eyes. The hand that
held the note trembled.

"I could not be so mean to him!" said Susanna to herself. "But perhaps
he was tired and hot--poor Jim!" And aloud she said with dignity: "I
shall have to take this paper--these plans--in to Mr. Fairfax, Emma.
I'll catch the four-twenty."

"You'll be dead!" said Emma, sympathetically.

"My head aches," Mrs. Fairfax admitted briefly. But when she was
upstairs and alone she found herself suddenly giving way to the long
deferred burst of tears.

After a while she bathed her eyes, brushed her hair, and substituted a
more substantial gown for the pongee. Then she started out once more,
refreshed and more cheerful in spite of herself, and soothed
unconsciously by the quiet close of the lovely autumn afternoon.

Her own gateway was separated by a flight of shallow stone steps from
the road, and Susanna paused there on her way to the train to gather
her skirts safely for the dusty walk. And while she was standing there
she found her gaze suddenly riveted upon a motor-car that, still a
quarter of a mile away, was rapidly descend the slope of the hill, its
two occupants fairly shaken by its violent and rapid approach. The road
here was not wide, and curved on a sharp grade, and Susanna always
found the descent of a large car, like this one, a matter of
half-terrified fascination. But surely with this car there was more
than the ordinary danger, she thought, with a sudden sick thumping at
her heart. Surely here was something all wrong! Surely no sane driver--

"That man is drunk," she said, quite aloud. "He cannot make it! He
can't possibly--ah-h-h!"

Her voice broke on a gasp, and she pressed one hand tight over her
eyes. For with swift and terrible precision the accident had indeed
come to pass. The car skidded, turned, hung for a sickening second on
one wheel, struck the stone of the roadside fence with a horrible
grinding jar and toppled heavily over against the bank.

When Susanna uncovered her eyes again, and before she could move or cry
out in the dumb horror tha