Salome’s face expressed surprise at such an unusual request; but she obligingly laid down her work and rose to follow. Evelyn was already half way down the hall, but she waited at the door of her mother’s room until Salome entered, when she closed it and locked it. She had no intention of having this interview interrupted until the battle should be fought out to the end. Salome wondered at such a strange proceeding, and her heart failed her somewhat as she caught the cold, relentless look upon Madame Winthrop’s face. Then a sudden fear almost paralyzed her. Had they received bad news from abroad? Mr. Winthrop was improving when last they had heard of him, though she had had no letter by the last two steamers. Could any ill have befallen her husband? Oh, if anything should happen to him, there could be nothing left for her to live for! “Sit down, Salome,” said Madame Winthrop, in her iciest tones; “I have something that I wish to say to you.” Salome obeyed and mechanically seated herself in the chair that Evelyn pushed toward her, but with a strange feeling of numbness creeping over her. “Oh!” she gasped, “has anything happened? is there anything the matter with—True?” Madam’s lips curled scornfully over the girl’s excitability. She was never thrown out of her equilibrium by any tidings, good or ill. “No, there is nothing the matter with Dr. Winthrop that I am aware of,” she said coldly; then added, with a furtive glance at her victim; “you had the last letter from him, and you surely ought to be better posted than I.” “Oh, but I have not heard from him by either of the last two steamers, and you looked so grave, so strange, I feared——” faltered Salome. “Well, I feel that I have reason to look grave; I have felt so ever since my return,” said madam, with a severely injured air; “and I have finally come to the conclusion that I can no longer endure the suspense that I have suffered. I have determined to have my doubts and fears either confirmed or removed, and so have sent for you to tell me what I wish to know.” “I do not understand you,” Salome replied, beginning to regain her composure, now that her fears regarding her husband were allayed, and regarding the woman wonderingly. “I suppose you are aware of the cause of my sudden return from abroad?” observed madam. “No, I am not,” said the young wife. “What! did not your hus—did not my son inform you why we came home in such hot haste?” “No; how could he when he was summoned away so suddenly himself?” “Well, then, it was because of the unexpected news of his marriage; it came in the form of a cable message to us, and like a thunderbolt out of a clear sky, for we had not the remotest suspicion that he intended to be married so soon.” “So soon!” These two words somehow struck a sudden chill to the young wife’s heart. They seemed to imply that he entertained thoughts of marriage before meeting her. But she put the thought away from her, and replied, deprecatingly: