fell and she finally saw her husband coming at a
laggard pace, leaning upon his cane, his chin sunk
on his breast, she frankly told Norbert that
although she had lived with that man more than
fifty-seven years, she would never be able to
understand him. She repeated this with genuine
symptoms of hysteria when she discovered that the
Colonel had not come straight from the Tabor
house, but had stopped two hours at Peter Bradbury's
to "talk it over."

One item of his recital, while sufficiently
startling to his wife, had a remarkable effect upon his
grandson. This was the information that Ariel
Tabor's fortune no longer existed.

"What's that?" cried Norbert, starting to his
feet. "What are you talking about?"

"It's true," said the Colonel, deliberately. "She
told me so herself. Eskew had dropped off into
a sort of doze--more like a stupor, perhaps,--and
we all went into Roger's old studio, except Louden
and the doctor, and while we were there, talkin',
one of Pike's clerks came with a basket full of tin
boxes and packages of papers and talked to Miss
Tabor at the door and went away. Then old Peter
blundered out and asked her point-blank what it
was, and she said it was her estate, almost everything
she had, except the house. Buckalew, tryin'