The ladies must not be allowed to come in here." Mr.Thornton turned to accompany young Mainwaring.

Near the door he met his daughter and Miss Carleton, while a little farther down the corridor were Isabel Mainwaring and her mother.

With terror-stricken faces they gathered about him, unable to believe the terrible report which they had learned from the servants.

As best he could, he answered their numerous inquiries, and, having escorted them to another part of the house, left them in charge of young Mainwaring, while he returned to the library.
Meanwhile, the news of the murder had spread with lightning-like rapidity, and already crowds of people, drawn by that strange fascination which always exists for a certain class in scenes of this kind, were gathering on the grounds outside the house, forming in little groups, conversing with the servants, or gazing upward with awe-stricken glances at the closely-drawn shutters of the room in the tower.

The invisible barriers which so long had excluded the public from Fair Oaks had been swept away by the hand of death, and rich and poor, capitalist and laborer, alike wandered unrestrained up and down the oak-lined avenue.
At the door of the library, Mr.Thornton found Ralph Mainwaring and the attorney conversing together in low tones.
"Yes," Mr.Mainwaring was saying, "as you say, it is undoubtedly murder; but I confess I am at a loss to understand the motive for such a deed, unless it were robbery; and you do not seem to give that idea much credence ?" Mr.Whitney shook his head decidedly.