Page:The Father Confessor, Stories of Danger and Death.djvu/312

302 raged, when I met her. "I am not to come near my own children, and am not mentioned in the will. The housekeeper, if you please, is to have charge of them till they are of age, and a trustee is to have all the money; but I shall dispute the will."

I turned from her in disgust, asking the maid where Agnes and the others were. She pointed to a door, and resumed her work, staring open eyes and mouth at the new arrival, and answering at random all the questions that that individual was putting to her.

I opened the door she had directed me to and entered. Agnes was standing before the mirror trying on a large red hat belonging, as I guessed, to Walter Barrington's wife. As she turned and twisted before the glass, the tears were running down her face.

"Poor father!" she sobbed, when she saw me; "I did not know he was really so ill and going to die."

Bobby and Lily came out of the corner where they had been playing with a lot of chairs. Their faces were full of importance and gravity.