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first."
    "Don't tell them anything, then, till we know just what's happened. I'll be down in a few minutes."
    She dressed in haste but was beaten in the race by Mr. Harte, who was downstairs ten minutes ahead of her, having decided that excessive ablutions in a moment of stress would be frivolous.
    He did not await her arrival but went out at once to take part in the search for his host. Just as Miss Allison reached the hall he came into the house with a very white face and said jerkily: "I've met them. I say, it's pretty ghastly, Miss Allison. He's dead."
    She did not say anything for a moment. Silas Kane's death was a possibility she had already realised; the news of it merely confirmed her fear.
    "They're bringing him up to the house," said Timothy. "Honestly, I didn't think anything like this would happen, Miss Allison."
    "No. Of course not." She turned as Pritchard came into the hall from the servants' wing and said as quietly as she could: "Master Timothy has told me, Pritchard. How did it happen? Have you any idea?"
    The butler looked very much shaken. "They found him at the foot of the cliff, miss. Just where the path runs along the edge. He must have missed his way in the fog. You'll excuse me, miss, but I'm a bit upset. I do not know when I have been so upset. To think of us lying in our beds with the poor master smashed up like that on those wicked rocks! Not that one could have done anything. If only he hadn't gone out! That's what I keep on saying to myself, over and over. It'll just about kill the mistress, this will."
    Miss Allison returned a mechanical answer. She did not think that Mrs. Kane was of the weak stuff to be killed by shock, or even by grief, but the task of breaking the news of Silas' death to her was not one to which she looked forward. After a moment's reflection she decided to postpone it until Emily had had her breakfast and with this end in view went off in search of Ogle.
    It was a point of honour with Ogle always to disagree with Miss Allison, of whom she was profoundly jealous, but her adoration of Emily made her on this occasion acquiesce in Patricia's decision. In acquiescing, however, she took the opportunity to tell Patricia that she knew Emily far better than anyone else did and could assure the anxious that Emily would bear up under this shock as well as she had borne up under all the other shocks incident in a long life.
    She was right. When Miss Allison, standing beside Emily's bed, said: "I have some very bad news for you, Mrs. Kane," Emily looked her over piercingly and rapped out: "Well, don't beat about the bush! What is it?"
    Patricia told her. Emily made no outcry, shed no tear. Only her face seemed to set more rigidly, and her eyes to become fixed upon some object beyond Patricia's vision. Her thin hands, their fingers bent with gout, lay motionless upon the quilt; she did not speak for some moments, but at last she brought her gaze to bear upon Miss Allison's face and said harshly: "What are you waiting for? Is there anything else?"
    "No, Mrs. Kane. Would you like me to go away?"
    Emily smiled wryly. "I suppose you want to stroke my hand and tell me to have a good cry?"
    "No, I don't," replied Patricia frankly. "It is my business to do exactly what you wish. Only you must tell me what that is, because I've never faced this situation before, and I don't know what to do."
    "Good girl!" approved Emily. "I dare say you think I'm a heartless old woman, eh? When you reach my age you'll know that death doesn't mean so much as you think it does now. Go downstairs and make yourself useful." She paused, and for the first time Patricia saw a twinge of some emotion contract her features. "Clement," she said. "Yes. Clement."
    Miss Allison nodded. "Of course. I'll ring him up immediately."
    Emily looked at her with rather a curious expression in her face. "He'll come here," she said. "He and that wife of his."
    "You need not see either of them, Mrs. Kane."
    Emily was shaken with sudden