CHAPTER III.
THE NEWS BROUGHT HOME.
Seated in the dining-room at Verner's Pride, comfortably asleep in an arm-chair, her face turned to the fire and her feet on a footstool, was Mrs.Verner.The dessert remained on the table, but nobody was there to partake of it.

Mr.Verner had retired to his study upon the withdrawal of the cloth, according to his usual custom.

Always a man of spare habits, shunning the pleasures of the table, he had scarcely taken sufficient to support nature since his health failed.

Mrs.Verner would remonstrate; but his medical attendant, Dr.West, said it was better for him that it should be so.

Lionel Verner (who had come in for the tail of the dinner) and John Massingbird had likewise left the room and the house, but not together.