"No. Don't make me guess; tell me," replied Winifred languidly. She was engaged in untying some knots in a skein of embroidery-silk. Isabel had just come into the room. She looked strangely excited. "Did you know that Claude was engaged to Inez while she was abroad?" Winifred dropped her work on the floor. Her face trembled, and her whole manner showed excitement. "I knew he cared a good deal for her. But not that way." "He did. I have been to see Inez. But that is not the strange news I have to tell." Isabel showed the marks of the recent death of Claude. She trembled while she spoke, and her face was pale and drawn. "Inez and her mother are going to help Mr. Douglass in his work in Freetown!" "What?" "Inez told me so this morning. She--she wants us to help her." There was a silence in the room. Winifred clasped her hands together, and her lips trembled with inward passion. [Illustration: WINIFRED AND ISABEL.] "Does she know that Claude was probably killed by that--that awful wretch in Freetown?" "I don't know. I suppose she has heard. I could not talk with her. Mrs. Carlton is not the same woman. It is all so horribly queer. I do not understand it." "What do they intend to do?" asked Winifred vaguely. "O, I don't know. They are going to help Mr. Douglass build that social-settlement hall he talks so much about. I don't like to think of it." "How did Inez look?" asked Winifred, after a little. "O, I don't know. Don't ask me. The whole thing is dreadful." "Do you think she cared very much for Claude?" "What do _you_ think, when she is ready to work for the people that caused his death?" Winifred shuddered and Isabel was silent. Neither of them could think or talk of Claude's death without a feeling of repulsion toward everything connected with the work in Freetown. That same evening Howard Douglass was going over the details of his plan with his wife. "Now that Mrs. Carlton has offered to help, we can begin at once on the social-settlement hall." "It is like a story. Who would have thought that Mrs. Carlton would ever offer to do such a thing?" Mr. Douglass thoughtfully spread some papers out over the table, and then wrote something before he spoke. "Yes, it is simply a miracle of changes in her case and that of Miss Inez. Mrs. Carlton has offered to give two thousand dollars toward the building. I have suggested that she use her influence to get other society people in Merton to have a share in the work. In fact, the redemption of Freetown ought to be a part of the whole city's life. The work to be done is so large that no one church or person or organization can do it. If we can only get the help of all the people who have means, we can do wonders in Freetown." There was silence again as the minister wrote. Presently he looked up and said, "Do you want to hear the plan as I have it on paper?"