I.
“A LADY to see you, sir.”
I looked up and was at once impressed by the grace and beauty of the person thus introduced to me.
“Is there anything I can do to serve you?” I asked, rising.
She cast me a child-like look full of trust and candor as she seated herself in the chair I pointed out to her.
“I believe so, I hope so,” she earnestly assured me. “I—I am in great trouble. I have just lost my husband—but it is not that. It is the slip of paper I found on my dresser, and which—which——”
She was trembling violently and her words were fast becoming incoherent. I calmed her and asked her to relate her story just as it had happened; and after a few minutes of silent struggle she succeeded in collecting herself sufficiently to respond with some degree of connection and self-possession.