With the first glance at her daughter, whose face she sought even before that of her husband, Mrs. Carlton knew that she was still ignorant of Claude's death. "Why, mother, you have been having a gay time during our absence. 'When the cat's away, the mice will play;' isn't that so, father?" cried Inez, as she flung her arms about her mother, while Mr. Carlton said something with a laugh, and kissed his wife as she turned to him from her daughter's embrace. "I've been having a little company to-night," Mrs. Carlton answered slowly. "Just a few of our friends. It was such a disappointment that you came just too late for it." "Who has been here, mother?" asked Inez, as she put her arm about her mother and playfully drew her into the dining-room. [Illustration: INEZ COMES HOME.] "Don't you and Frank want something to eat?" Mrs. Carlton desperately fought against the inevitable disclosure that must come. "Yes. I'm hungry. We rushed every minute of the way from New York. Didn't even take time to read the papers. What's happened since we've been away? But you have not told us who was here." Inez, still talking, sat down at the table, and Mrs. Carlton ordered one of the servants to bring in refreshments. Mrs. Carlton murmured over the names of several people. Her manner was so agitated that her daughter and husband both noticed it. "What's the matter, Louise? Are you ill?" asked her husband. "No, but I'm very tired," exclaimed Mrs. Carlton. She was almost hysterical in her nervousness as she saw no way of escaping the dreadful news. The more she looked at Inez, the more she was struck with a new look on the girl's face. It was the look a girl would carry who had recently come to know what love is. "Mother," Inez rattled on, "you have not given the whole list of those who were here; was, was--Claude Vernon here?" The girl looked at her mother with a blush on her face, and then suddenly with an impulsive gesture she said, as she held her hand out over the table: "Mother, I must tell you! Father knows. Claude asked me a week before we sailed from Havre. We are engaged. We--." She paused, seeing that in her mother's face which drove the color out of her own. Mrs. Carlton sat there in miserable silence. She hoped she might faint. She hoped for anything that would relieve her of the horror of the occasion. "Mother!" cried Inez, "what is it?" She ran around the table, and Mr. Carlton at the same time came and supported his wife. "O, it is too terrible! I cannot! I cannot tell it!" "What! Is it Claude? Is anything the matter?" cried Inez, swiftly imagining evil where she loved the most. "Yes! Yes! O my God! O child! Claude is--." "He is dead!" said Inez calmly, but in a strange voice. Mrs. Carlton threw her arms about her daughter and sobbed hysterically. When she finally recovered to realize what the news meant, Inez lay unconscious in her mother's arms. She had fainted.