tired, and he made up his mind that he would not be interrogated that
evening. So he gave her no opportunity for the confidential talk she was
dying to have with him, but spent the remainder of the evening in
dutiful attendance upon his mother.

The following day was Christmas Eve. Max came down late to breakfast,
and he had scarcely entered the morning-room when his father handed him
the _Standard_, pointing to a certain paragraph without any comment
but a glance at the girls, as a hint to his son not to make any remark
which would recall Dudley and his affairs to their minds.

The paragraph was as follows:

"SHOCKING DISCOVERY!

"The body of a man was found floating in the river close to
Limehouse Pier late yesterday evening. Medical evidence points to
death by violence, and the police are making inquiries. It is
thought that the description of the body, which is that of a man of
a Jewish type of countenance, rather under than over the middle
height, aged between fifty and fifty-five, gray hair and short,
gray beard, tallies with that given a few days ago by a woman who
applied at the ---- Street Police Court, alleging that her husband
had disappeared in the above neighborhood. The police are extremely
reticent, but at the present they have no clue to the authors of
the outrage. The body awaits identification at the mortuary, and an
inquest will be held to-day."

"I wonder whether Dudley will see that?" said Mr. Wedmore, in a low
voice, as soon as his daughters were engaged in talk together. "It looks