Ermentrude Taylor entered the room and at the sight of her he rose and his arms went out; then he sank back weak and stricken into his chair, gazing as if he could never have his fill at her noble countenance luminous with a boundless pity if not with the tenderness of an unforgotten love.
When she was near enough to speak without effort and had thanked the gentlemen who had made way for her with every evidence of respect, she addressed him in quite a natural tone but with strange depths of feeling in her voice: "What is it you want to say to me?
As I stood at the door, I heard you tell these gentlemen that you would like to have a few minutes' talk with me.

I was glad to hear that; and I am ready to listen to--_anything_." The pause she made before uttering the last word caused it to ring with double force when it fell.

All heads drooped at the sound and the lines came out on Mr.Gryce's face till he looked his eighty-five years and more.

But what Carleton Roberts had to say at this critical moment of his double life was not at all what they expected to hear.
Rising, for her eyes seemed to draw him to his feet, he cried in the indescribable tone of suppressed feeling: "Shadows are falling upon me.

My interview with these gentlemen may end in a way I cannot now foresee.