The next day a solicitor called at the office and Pidge still felt squally. She couldn’t grasp what he was saying. She thought it had something to do with a secret society that was going to attend an absurd matter, known as “obsequies.” She was deluged in words. “... Be perfectly calm, Mrs. Melton,” the solicitor said at last. “This isn’t exactly bad news, but I’ve known lasting injury from the one, as well as the other----” “Please--what are you talking about?” “Your legacy----” “My--I don’t----” “From the late John Higgins----” “But it was only last night!” “The late John Higgins, nevertheless. The demise----” “And what about it?” “That he has left you--this paper in my hand being the memorandum--his interest in _The Public Square_----” “Me----” “A half-interest in the ownership, to be exact----” Pidge glanced around the room. The man was sitting. The first and terrible obstacle of life was to remove him, or escape from him. “What have I to do?” “Just sign----” But he was still sitting, after she had signed. He wanted to be sociable.... She was on the car going home. She hopped off at Eighth Street, and was turned into Harrow, before she realized that she didn’t live there any more but in Gramercy Park.... Curving Harrow Street was quiet and calling. She went in to the curve and stood before the old green front. A sign on the door announced “Rooms, Permanent and Transient.”... “What kind of rooms are transient rooms?” she thought. The curb and doorstep thronged with memories. “Oh, Dicky, it’s too much,” she whispered at last. “Come soon, and prop me up!” LI “WE LOOK UPON WOMEN AS SACRED” “_DO you people want peace or war? If you wish for war the Government is prepared for it, and if you want peace, then obey my orders and open all your shops; else, I will shoot. For me the battlefield of France or Amritsar is the same. I am a military man and I will go straight. Neither shall I move to the right, nor to the left. Speak up, if you want war. In case there is to be peace, my order is to open all shops at once. Obey orders. I do not wish to have anything else. I have served in the military for over thirty years. I understand the Indian sepoy and the Sikh people very well. You must inform me of the budmashes. I will shoot them. Obey my orders and open shops. Speak up if you want war._” General Fyatt was talking to a large company of Amritsar’s native representatives, lawyers, merchants, doctors, in the _kotwali_, the day after the massacre. The Deputy Commissioner added: “You have committed a bad act in killing the English. The revenge will be taken upon you and upon your children.”