Kathryn nodded and her easy tears fell. "Dead?" The word cut like a knife and Kathryn shivered. For the first she doubted herself; felt like a bungler. "Oh! no, Brace; Brace, do not look like that--really--really--listen to me." Northrup breathed heavily. "An accident?" he demanded. A hard note rang in his words. This turn of affairs was rather more than Kathryn had arranged for. It was like finding herself on the professional stage when she had bargained for an amateur performance. She ran to cover, abandoning all her well-laid plans. She knew the advantage of being the first in a new situation, so she hurried there. "Brace dear, I--you know I have been bearing it all alone and I dared _not_ take any further responsibility even to--to shield you, dearest, and your work." By some dark magic Northrup felt himself a selfish brute; a deserter of duty. "Kathryn," he said, and his eyes fell, "please tell me. I suppose I have been unforgivable, but--well, there's nothing to say!" Northrup bowed his head to take whatever blow might fall. "I may be all wrong, dear. You know, when one is alone, is the confidante of another, one as precious as your mother is to you and me, it unnerves one--I did not know what to do. It may not be anything--but how could I know?" "You went to Manly?" Northrup asked this with a sense of relief while at the same time Kathryn had risen to a plane so high that he felt humbled before her. He was still dazed and in the dark, but all was not lost! While he had been following his selfish ends, Kathryn had stood guard over all that was sacred to him. He had never before realized the strength and purpose of the pretty child near him. He reached out and laid his hand on the bowed head. "No, dear, that was it. Your mother would not let me--she thought only of you; you must not be worried, just now--oh! you know how she is! But, dearest, she has had, for years, a strange and dreadful pain. It does not come often, but when it does, it is very, very bad--it comes mostly at night--so she has been able to hide it from you; the day following she always spoke of it as a headache--you know how we have sympathized with her--but never were alarmed?" Northrup nodded. He recalled those headaches. "Well, a week ago she called me to come to her--she really looked quite terrible, Brace. I was so frightened, but of course I had to hide my feelings. She says--oh! Brace, she says there is--way back in the family----" "Nonsense!" Northrup got up and paced the floor. "Manly has told me that was sheer nonsense. Go on, Kathryn." "Well, dear, she was weak and _so_ pitiful and she--she confided things to me that I am sure she would not have, had she been her brave, dear self." "What kind of things?" It was horrible, but Northrup was conscious of being in a net where the meshes were wide enough to permit of his seeing freedom but utterly cutting him off from it.