from his clutches."

He took the little blue envelope from his breast pocket and handed
it to her, kissing the tips of her fingers as she took it from
him.

"Ah!"

A sudden ejaculation of dismay escaped her, when, after rather
carelessly tearing the message open, she had glanced at it.

"What is the matter?" he asked in eager solicitude. "May I not
know?"

She made no offer to give him the telegram, and said in a
faltering voice, and with much hesitation of manner, "I do not
know. I hardly think--of course I do not like to withhold
anything, not now. And yet, this is a business which concerns me
only, I am afraid. I ought not to drag you into it."

"What concerns you is very much my business, too. I do not wish to
force your confidence, still--"

She gave him the telegram quite obediently, with a little sigh of
relief, glad to realize now, for the first time after many years,
that there was some one to give her orders and take the burden of
trouble off her shoulders.

He read it, but did not understand it in the least. It ran: "I
must see you immediately, and beg you will come. You will find