"My poor old friend is dead!" "Dead--Marshall's father dead!" She looked at him curiously, with a questioning light in her eyes.

"You have not told me all, Colonel Harbison!" "Not told you all--" he repeated.
"How did he die ?" "I think--I fear he shot himself, but of course it may have been the purest accident--" "It was not an accident--" she cried with a sob.

"Oh, don't mind what I am saying!" she added quickly, seeing the look of astonishment on the colonel's face.
"Mrs.Langham may come up if she wishes!" called Doctor Taylor, speaking from the head of the stairs.
Evelyn moved down the hall and paused.
"Does Marsh know ?" she asked of the colonel.
"Yes, unfortunately we carried him into his father's room," explained Harbison.
Evelyn went slowly up the stairs.

The horror of the situation was beyond words.

As she entered the room where Marshall lay, Watt Harbison and the doctor silently withdrew into the hall, closing the door after them; but Langham gave no immediate sign that he was aware of his wife's presence.
"Marsh ?" she said softly.
His palpable weakness and his cut and bruised face gave her an instinctive feeling of tenderness for him.