A verdict of suicide was rendered by the coroner's jury, and the
life-insurance company, in which Mr. Hammond had but lately
insured himself for a large sum, taking advantage of the suicide
clause embodied in the policy, announced its determination of not
paying the same.

Such was the situation, as known to Violet Strange and the
general public, on the day she was asked to see Mrs. Hammond and
learn what might alter her opinion as to the justice of this
verdict and the stand taken by the Shuler Life Insurance
Company.

The clock on the mantel in Miss Strange's rose-coloured boudoir
had struck three, and Violet was gazing in some impatience at the
door, when there came a gentle knock upon it, and the maid (one
of the elderly, not youthful, kind) ushered in her expected
visitor.

"You are Mrs. Hammond?" she asked, in natural awe of the too
black figure outlined so sharply against the deep pink of the
sea-shell room.

The answer was a slow lifting of the veil which shadowed the
features she knew only from the cuts she had seen in newspapers.

"You are--Miss Strange?" stammered her visitor; "the young lady
who--"

"I am," chimed in a voice as ringing as it was sweet. "I am the
person you have come here to see. And this is my home. But that