Page:The Mystery of Central Park.djvu/227

Rh held her so close to his heart that she gasped for breath.

"I've the story right here, sweetheart," and in the fewest possible words, punctuated with Penelope's exclamations of surprise and sorrow, Richard related all that had happened since the night before she went to Washington.

"My dear—Oh, Richard. Good morning," said Penelope's aunt, as she entered the room with bonnet on and a carriage-wrap thrown hastily over a house dress. "Mrs. Chamberlain has sent for me. They have just received news that Clara's fiancée, Mr. Bike, was found dead in his bathroom, shot through the head. They think it was accidental, and poor Clara, who was to have been a bride this evening, is prostrated. I'll be back presently, dear. Richard stay with the child."

They let her go without a word of the information they possessed, and, oblivious to all else, they read Tolman Bike's confession.