But at the end of ten years a change came, neither natural nor expected.
Franz was walking moodily about his library one night, when Louis came
to tell him of it, Louis was no longer young, and was married now, for
he had found out that the beaten track is the safest.

"Franz," he said, "have you heard about Clarke? His affairs are
frightfully wrong, and he shot himself an hour ago."

"And Christine? Does she know? Who has gone to her?"

"My wife is with her. Clarke shot himself in his own room. Christine was
the first to reach him. He left a letter saying he was absolutely
ruined."

"Where will Christine and the children go?"

"I suppose to her father's. Not a pleasant place for her now.
Christine's step-mother dislikes both her and the children."

Franz said no more, and Louis went away with a feeling of
disappointment. "I thought he would have done something for her," he
said to his wife. "Poor Christine will be very poor and dependent."

Ten days after he came home with a different story. "There never was a
woman as lucky about money as Cousin Christine," he said. "Hardy & Hall
sent her notice to-day that the property at Ryebeach settled on her
before her marriage by Mr. Clarke was now at her disposal. It seems the
old gentleman anticipated the result of his wild speculations, and in
order to provide for his wife, quietly bought and placed in Hardy's