A tap had sounded at the door, which was now opened, and the Doctor entered. The children scrambled down from their seats and ran to him. Miss Boucheafen, turning from the window, arched her straight brows with an expression of questioning surprise. For Doctor Brudenell to appear in the school-room at that hour in the morning was an unprecedented event. "Good-morning, Mademoiselle." He took the cold, carelessly-yielded hand into his own for a moment. "Don't let me disturb you. I simply came up to express my hope that you were not alarmed last night." "Alarmed?" echoed Alexia. "Then you did not hear it?"--with a look of mingled relief and astonishment. "Well, I am glad of it. But you must sleep very soundly. You were the only person in the house who was not aroused." "I sleep very soundly." She looked at him keenly, noting that his face was drawn and that his eyes were dull, showing that he had not slept. "I did not know there was anything wrong. Not here, I hope?" "No, not here exactly; but it is a most horrible thing." He drew a pace nearer to her, dropping his voice so that the sharp little ears that were all eagerly listening should not catch the words. "A most horrible thing. A murder, Mademoiselle!" "A murder?" repeated Alexia. "Nothing less; and not a hundred yards away from this door." Miss Boucheafen had leaned back, almost fallen, against the window-frame. She was so pale that he said hastily: "I beg your pardon--I spoke too abruptly. I have frightened you." "No, no; I am not frightened. Go on, pray! How was it? Who was it?" "As to who it was--a man. As to how it was, he was stabbed to the heart," answered the Doctor shortly. "And he was found dead, and brought here?" "Yes, at three o'clock this morning, and brought here by the police. But he was dead, and had been dead for at least half an hour. I could do nothing." "How horrible--how very horrible!" murmured Alexia. "Did you say, sir, that he was an old man?" "No; he is little more than a lad--a mere boy--nineteen or twenty at the most. A handsome lad too; I should fancy he was not English." "Is there any clue as to who did it?" questioned the governess. "Not that I know of yet. The police have had no time to work, you see," he reminded her gently. "Ah, yes; I was forgetting, sir! Have they taken it away?" "From here? Not yet. It must be removed to the mortuary to await the inquest, of course." He hesitated, and then added, in a voice which, in spite of all his efforts, was almost tender, "You are not afraid of its being here, are you?" "Afraid!" A smile, as curious as fleeting, parted the beautiful lips of Alexia Boucheafen. "No, I am not afraid. I asked, because---- Sir, may I see it?" "See it?" George Brudenell was so startled and shocked that he doubted if he had heard aright. "Surely, Mademoiselle, you do not mean what you say?"