"Is Dr. Brookbank dead?"
"He is, and has left a considerable sum behind him; he economize unknown to his family, it seems."
"But even so, there is an Elder brother."
"No, he died in America; of this there is certain news."
"In America!" said Annie. "I did not know he was ever there".
"No? Well, it seems he ran off with a neighbor's wife, took her to America, got tired of her, left her, and went off to the woods. There he lived some time, but one day was found at the foot of some rapids, drowned."
"But how did his family know this?"
"Some stranger to that district identified the body and gave evidence before the presiding magistrate, after which they searched the shanty in which the man had lived, and found papers corroborative of his being Walter Brookbank, and these papers, with sundry articles, they sent home to his family, according to the address given by the stranger, and they were found to have belonged to Walter."
"Strange concurrence of events! Who was the stranger?"
"He gave his name as William Jones."