she who put the cakes and wine and fruit upon the dining-room table,
already somewhat meagerly arranged by Helena's reluctant hands; she
who bustled about to find card-tables, and induced Tom Dilworth to
sing;

"_Thou--Thou reignest in this bosom!--_"

and got Mr. Ezra Barkley to ask statistical conundrums.

"It's well there is somebody to attend to things," she said in a dry
aside to William. "Mrs. Richie just walks around as if she didn't
belong here. And she lets that child sit up until this hour! I can't
understand how a sensible woman can deliberately spoil a child.--I'd
like to know what that perfume is that she uses," she ended frowning.

It was after supper, while the husband and wife, still oppressed with
their responsibilities, were standing in the doorway looking in upon
the cheerful party now in full enjoyment of its own hospitality, that
Eddy Minns came up behind them and touched William King's arm.

"Dr. King," he said breathlessly, "a telegram, sir. For Mrs. Richie.
And mother said it was bad news!"

"Oh, William!" said Martha; "bad news! Do you know what it is, Eddy?"

"Somebody is dead," the boy said, important and solemn.

"Her brother?" William King asked in dismay.

"Well, not the brother that comes here; his name is Lloyd, mother