She looked sadly at the superscription a moment, then opened it and began to read.
"It will be like his voice speaking to me from the grave," she thought.
"My own devoted father!" Half an hour passed.

The letter was long and closely written, and the girl read it slowly from beginning to end.
It dropped in her lap.

She sat there, staring straight before her, with a fixed, vacant stare.

Then she arose slowly, placed it in the writing-case, put her hand to her head confusedly, and turned with a bewildered look.
Her face flushed dark red; the room was reeling, the walls rocking dizzily.

She made a step forward with both hands blindly outstretched, and fell headlong to the floor.
Next morning Sir Everard Kingsland, descending to his hotel breakfast, found a sealed note beside his plate.