When you know my stepmother as well as I do--but I must talk calmly about her, or you will not understand my reasons for thinking her concerned in the terrible fate of my poor father." "I am all attention, Miss Vrain." "I'll tell you all I know, as concisely as possible," she replied, "and you can judge for yourself if I am right or wrong.

Three years ago my father's health was very bad.

Since the death of my mother--now some ten years--he had devoted himself to hard study, and had lived more or less the life of a recluse in Berwin Manor.

He was writing a history of the Elizabethan dramatists, and became so engrossed with the work that he neglected his health, and consequently there was danger that he might suffer from brain fever.

The doctors ordered him to leave his books and to travel, in order that his attention might be distracted by new scenes and new people.