He opened the door, and a messenger handed him a note. It read as follows:—
"My Dear Mr. Douglass:—Mrs. Carlton and Inez would like to see you. Can you call at the house this morning? We are in trouble.
Very truly yours,
"Frank L. Carlton."
The minister handed the note to his wife without a word.
"Perhaps the Lord is leading her in some way of his own," she said, and the words sounded in Howard Douglass's ears repeatedly as he hurried toward the Carlton mansion, not knowing why he had been summoned there.
[CHAPTER V.]
CALLERS AT MR. DOUGLASS'S.
Have you heard the strange news?" asked Isabel Vernon of her sister Winifred several days after that night when Inez Carlton had fainted in her mother's arms.