“I've come to Philadelphia to prevent a suicide.”
“Good gracious!”
“Yes. You see, I've broken the engagement between me and Tom Appleton.”
“What! You don't mean it?”
There was a striking note of jubilation in the doctor's interruption. Miss Winnett made no comment thereupon, but continued:
“I finally decided that I didn't care as much for Tom as I'd thought I did, and then I had a suspicion—but I won't mention that—”
“No, you needn't. Your fortune—pardon me, I simply took the privilege of an old friend who had himself been rejected by you. Go on.”
“Don't interrupt again. As I said, I concluded that I couldn't be Tom's wife, and I told him so. He went to the Catskills when we went, you know, as he thought he could keep up his law studies as well there as here. You can't imagine how he took it. I'd never before known how much he—he really wished to marry me. But I was unflinching, and at last he left me, vowing that he would return to Philadelphia and commit suicide. He swore a terrible oath that my next message from him would be found in his hands after his death. And he set to-night as the time for the deed.”
“But why couldn't he have done it there and then?”
“How hard-hearted you are! Probably because he wanted to put his affairs in order before putting an end to his life.”