CHAPTER XX.
MATILDA BREAKS IT GENTLY At two o'clock of the fifth night Matilda stole into Mrs.De Peyster with a face that would have been an apt cover for the Book of Lamentations.

She opened her pages.

That day she had had a telegram that her sister Angelica--the really and truly Angelica, who really and truly lived near Syracuse--that Angelica was seriously ill.

She was sorry, but she felt that she must go.
"Of course, you must go, Matilda!" exclaimed Mrs.De Peyster.

Then the significance to her of Matilda's absence flashed upon her.