"Yes, my dear, and when you have a spare moment to bestow upon your
unworthy husband, you will find him on the veranda," he answered lightly,
bending his steps in that direction.

Only a few minutes had passed when she sought him there; but what a
change had come over him! All his gayety had forsaken him, his face was
pale, and his eyes, as he turned them upon her, were full of anguish.

"Oh Lester, my dear, dear husband! what is it?" she cried, hastening to
him and laying a hand tenderly upon his shoulder.

"Read," he said hoarsely, holding out the open letter to her,--Eric's
letter, whose sad tidings seemed for the time to have driven away all the
joy and brightness of life.

Glancing down the page, Elsie read:

"My dear brother, will you come to me? I have sore need of you. For a
year past I have felt my strength failing; for the last few months
matters have grown worse, till my days and nights are filled with pain
and unrest; and today I have learned that the time has come for me to set
my house in order, for I am to 'die, and not live.' Nay, not so: I am to
pass from the land of the dying to that blest world where death can never
enter.

"My physician tells me it may possibly be three months ere I reach 'that
bourne whence no traveller returns,' but that in all probability I shall
arrive there in less than half that time.