What could have happened that Edgar Abbott should summon him?
Had his wife run away?
-- Ah, to be sure, it must have something to do with Wager's children--an accident, a death.

But why send for _him_?
He made a little change in his dress, and drove forthwith to Kilburn.
As his cab stopped, he saw that all the blinds in the front of the Abbotts' house were drawn down.

Death, then, obviously.

It was with a painful shaking of the nerves that he knocked for admission.
'Mr.Abbott---- ?' The servant girl, who had a long-drawn face, said nothing, but left him where he stood, returning in a moment with a mumbled 'Will you please to come in, sir ?' He followed her to the room in which he had talked with Mrs.Abbott two days ago; and she it was who again received him.
Her back to the light, she stood motionless.
'Your husband has telegraphed for me----' A voice that struggled with a sob made thick reply---- 'No--I--he is dead!' The accent of that last monosyllable was heart-piercing.

It seemed to Harvey as though the word were new-minted, so full it sounded of dreadful meaning.
'Dead ?' Mrs.Abbott moved, and he could see her face better.