The words had barely passed his lips when the voice of one of theservants reached them from the house. "Miss Emily, are you in thegarden?"
Emily stepped out into the sunshine. The servant hurried to meet her,and placed a telegram in her hand. She looked at it with a suddenmisgiving. In her small experience, a telegram was associated with thecommunication of bad news. She conquered her hesitation--opened it--readit. The color left her face: she shuddered. The telegram dropped on thegrass.
"Read it," she said, faintly, as Alban picked it up.
He read these words: "Come to London directly. Miss Letitia isdangerously ill."
"Your aunt?" he asked.
"Yes--my aunt."
BOOK THE SECOND--IN LONDON.