"I confess that my heart beat a little faster than common as I brought from my bedroom the number of _The Family Cornucopia_, and placed it in her hands. So lonely is her life that she spends an hour or two most forenoons in the school-room with Freddy and me; accordingly I was not at all surprised when she drew her chair up to the fire and settled herself for what she calls a 'comfortable read.' "I watched her furtively, feeling pretty sure that, as a child picks the biggest currants out of its cake first of all, so would she pick out the story 'How, and Why' from the rest of the somewhat dry and jejune contents of the magazine. First her face flushed, and then, a few seconds later, paled as suddenly; then she flashed a look at me and caught my eyes fixed on her, with, it may be, a directness in their gaze which she found somewhat disconcerting. Anyhow, hers were the first to drop. For a minute or more she sat staring into the fire, her little pearly teeth biting into the crimson of her under-lip. Then, as if she had come to some resolve, she got up suddenly, and, looking me steadily in the face, said in tones as steady as her gaze: 'It is not often that I am troubled with a headache, but one has laid hold of me this afternoon. If you don't mind, dear Miss Sudlow, I will take this magazine to my own room and read it there.' Of course I told her that I did not mind in the least, and that I hoped her headache would soon pass off. Whereupon, with the palm of one hand pressed to her brow, and smiling a little strangely, she went, taking the story with her. "For the rest of the day nothing more was seen of Mrs. Melray. At dinner-time she sent down word that she had a bad headache, and apparently she had not got rid of it by next morning, seeing that she failed to appear at the breakfast-table, neither was she visible at luncheon. But a surprise was in store for me. In the course of the afternoon a note was brought me by Charlotte the housemaid. Here it is: "'Dear Miss Sudlow,--Will you oblige me by coming to my room as soon as Freddy's lessons for the day are over? "'Yours sincerely, "'Denia Melray.' I am afraid that for the rest of the afternoon Master Freddy and his lessons received but a very perfunctory attention at my hands. Much to the boy's delight, I dismissed him a quarter-of-an-hour before the usual time, and five minutes later found me at the door of the widow's private sitting-room, which, during her husband's lifetime, had been known as the small drawing-room. After a preliminary tap I turned the handle and went in.