But his eyes sparkled like bits of glass in the sun.
"Well, Ordeyne ?" he inquired, looking up from letters to parents.
"I have come to ask you to accept my resignation," said I."I would like you to release me at once." "Come, come, things are not as bad as all that," said he, kindly.
I looked stupidly at him for a moment.
"Of course I know you've got one or two troublesome forms," he continued.
Then I winced.

His conjecture hurt me horribly.
"Oh, it's nothing to do with my incompetence," I interrupted.
"What is it, then ?" "My grandfather, two uncles, two nephews and a valet were drowned a day or two ago in the Mediterranean," I answered, calmly.
I have since been struck by the crudity of this announcement.

It took my chief's breath away.
"I deeply sympathise with you," he said at last.
"Thank you," said I.
"A terrible catastrophe.

No wonder it has upset you.

Horrible! Six living human beings! Three generations of men!" "That's just it," said I."Three generations of my family swept away, leaving me now at the head of it." At this moment the chief's wife came into the library with the morning paper in her hand.