Brown's hand heartily, sat down with a very red isLGe,



ON THIS SIDE. 465

Hnd then started up and dismissed the carriage, which,
pending this decision, had heen waiting at the door.
It chanced that Mrs. Sykes had been out for some
hours that day, and had then come back and gone into
the library, where she spent some time in writing to
the friends who had entertained her in Central New
York. She had just finished putting up the morning
paper for them containing a full and carefully-marked
Hiccount of the defalcation and disappearance of a bank-
president in Delaware in whom she recognized the
brother of her former hostess, when Ethel looked in at
the door and said, " Oh, you are here," and, coming for-
ward, gave her the dreadful news. It was well that
this final mark of her gratitude and graceful interest
was complete down to the very postage-stamp, for after
this Mrs. Sykes had no time for delicate attentions.
"Stand off! good heavens 1 Don't come near me.
Get away I" she shrieked, and for once every particle
of color left her face. The next moment she rushed
up-stairs to her room, put on her bonnet and cloak in a
flash, and, without farewells of any kind, or thought of
BO much as her darling Bobo, left the house immediately.
