"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.