I answered her first look of inquiry by the
words:--
"It is over. Another book of life is sealed up here to be opened in
eternity."
"Dead! Not dead?"
"Yes, Constance, Mrs. Allen is dead. Her spirit had passed away
before my arrival."
"How did she die?--from what cause?"
"From what I can learn she died in a fit of passion." I then related
all that I had seen and heard.
"But who can they be?" This query came as a natural sequence. "What
right have they in the Allen House?"
"Whoever they may be," I replied, "they act, or, at least, the elder
of the two ladies acts as if her right there was not even open to a
question. And, perhaps, it is not."
"But what can they be to the Allens?"
"I will give you," said I, "the benefit of my guessing on the
subject. You recollect the story told about Captain Allen's mother;
how she went off a great many years ago with a stranger--an
Englishman."
Constance remembered all about this family history, for it was the
romance of our town.
"My conclusion is that this lady is the sister of Captain Allen--the
child that his mother took with her when she fled from her husband's
house.
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