And after supper he was just getting ready to go out to inquire after a sick family near by, when there was a knock at the door.
It was a messenger boy with a telegram.

Philip opened it almost mechanically and carrying it to the light read: "Alfred died at four P.M.Can you come ?" For a second he did not realize the news.

Then as it rushed upon him he staggered and would have fallen if the table had not been so close.

A faintness and a pain seized him and for a minute he thought he was falling.

Then he pulled himself together and called his wife, who was in the kitchen.