.
Now, please tell me just why you have called, Mr.Curtis." She had preceded him into a prettily furnished dining-room, and the notion leaped up in his troubled mind that she was not so deeply moved by the malfortune of Monsieur Jean de Courtois as might be expected from the man's prospective bride.
Still, he tried bravely to accommodate himself to conditions which left his brain in a whirl.
"I had better begin by saying that your marriage cannot take place--to-night----" he added, flinching from the necessity of bringing that look of dismay into those charming eyes.

"That is why I asked your maid if there was no other person whom I could take into my confidence.

You see, it is a terribly hard thing to be compelled to discuss such a matter with one so closely bound up with--with Monsieur de Courtois." "But there is no one else.

Marcelle and I live here quite alone." More than ever did Curtis feel uncomfortable, but he had deliberately elected for this miserable job, and he meant to go through with it.
"So I gathered from Mademoiselle Marcelle herself," he said.

"Well, then, Miss Grandison, I have no option but to inform you, with all the sympathy any man must feel for a woman in your position, that Monsieur de Courtois has met with an accident." "Oh, how terrible! Is he badly hurt ?" "Yes." "Yet it may be possible for the ceremony to be performed.