"Oh, mamma, where is Lora?" she cried, in a faint voice, while her limbs seemed to totter beneath her. Mrs. Carroll shook her head, and put her hands to her throat, while her pallid features seemed to work with convulsive emotion. The terrible shock she had sustained seemed to have stricken her dumb. "Oh, mamma, mamma, cannot you speak? Cannot you tell me?" implored her daughter. But by signs and gestures Mrs. Carroll made her understand that the terrible constriction in her throat made it impossible for her to utter a word. For a moment Mrs. St. John stood still, like a silent statue of despair, but with a sudden inspiration she brought writing materials, placed them on a small table, and said to her mother: "Sit down, mamma, and write what you know." Mrs. Carroll's anguished face brightened at the suggestion. She sat down quickly at the little table, and drawing a sheet of paper toward her, dipped the pen into the ink, and began to write. Xenie leaned over her shoulder, and watched eagerly for the words that were forming beneath her hand. But, alas, the nervous shock her mother had sustained made her hand tremble like an aspen leaf. Great, sprawling, blotted, inky characters soon covered the fair sheet thickly, but among them all there was not one legible word. Xenie groaned aloud in her terrible impatience and pain. "Oh, mamma, try again!" she wailed. "Write slowly and carefully. Rest your arm upon the table, and let your hand move slowly--very slowly." And with an impotent moan, Mrs. Carroll took another sheet of paper and tried to subdue her trembling hands to the task for whose fulfillment her daughter was waiting so anxiously. But again the blotted characters were wholly illegible. No effort of the mother's will could still the nervous, trembling hands, and render legible the anguished words she laboriously traced upon the paper. She sighed hopelessly as her daughter shook her head. "Never mind, mamma," she said, "let it go, you are too nervous to form a single letter legibly. I will ask you some questions instead, and you will bow when your answer should be affirmation, and shake your head to indicate the negative." Mrs. Carroll gave the required token of assent to this proposition. "Very well. Now I will ask you the first question," said Xenie, trying to subdue her quivering voice into calm accents. "Mamma, did Lora go to sleep after I left you together?" A shake of the head negatived the question. "She was restless and flighty, then, perhaps, still dwelling on her dream about her husband?" This question received an affirmative answer. "But after awhile she became composed and fell asleep--did she not?" continued Mrs. St. John. Mrs. Carroll bowed, her lips moving continually in a vain and yearning effort after words. "And then you lay down upon the lounge to snatch a few minutes of repose?" asserted Xenie. Again she received an affirmative reply. "Mamma, did you sleep long?" was the next question.