THE LETTER FROM AUSTRIA 343 XLVII. AGNES FINDS THE LETTER 348 XLVIII. LA MAISON DE SANTE 356 XLIX. THE ESCAPE 364 L. GOING HOME 370 LI. BREAKING THE NEWS AT THE FORREST HOUSE 373 LII. BREAKING THE NEWS TO EVERARD 377 LIII. THE ARREST 383 LIV. TELLING THE TRUTH TO ROSSIE 387 LV. CONCLUSION 389 THE FORREST HOUSE. CHAPTER I. TWO LETTERS. The first, a small half-sheet, inclosed in a large thick envelope, and addressed in a childish, unformed hand to Mr. James Everard Forrest, Junior, Ellicottville, Berkshire County, Massachusetts, with a request in the lower left-hand corner for the postmaster to forward immediately; the second, a dainty little perfumed missive, with a fanciful monogram, directed in a plain round hand to J. Everard Forrest, Esq., Ellicottville, Mass., with the words “in haste” written in the corner. Both letters were in a hurry, and both found their way together to a brown-haired, brown-eyed, brown-faced young man, who sat under the shadow of the big maple tree on the Common in Ellicottville, lazily puffing his cigar and fanning himself with his Panama hat, for the thermometer was ninety in the shade, and the hour 10 A. M. of a sultry July day. At first it was almost too much exertion to break the seals, and for a moment J. Everard Forrest, Jr., toyed with the smaller envelope of the two, and studied the handwriting. “I may as well see what Josey wants of me _in haste_,” he said at last, and breaking the seal, he read: “HOLBURTON, July 15. “DEAR NED: You must come to-morrow on the four o’clock train. Everything has gone at sixes and sevens, for just at the very last Mrs. Murdock, who has been dying for twenty years or more, must really die, and the Murdock boys can’t act, so you must take the character of the bridegroom in the play where I am to be the bride. You will have very little to say. You can learn it all in fifteen minutes, but you must come to-morrow so as to rehearse with us once at least. Now, don’t you _dare_ fail. I shall meet you at the station. “Yours lovingly, “JOSEPHINE FLEMING. “P. S.—Do you remember I wrote you in my last of a Dr. Matthewson, who has been in town a few days stopping at the hotel? He has consented to be the priest on condition that _you_ are the bridegroom, so do not fail me. Again, with love, JOE.”