A RETREAT Visiting his friends as usual on Sunday evening, Sidney Kirkwood felt, before he had been many minutes in the room, that something unwonted was troubling the quiet he always found here.

Michael Snowdon was unlike himself, nervously inattentive, moving frequently, indisposed to converse on any subject.

Neither had Jane her accustomed brightness, and the frequent glances she east at her grandfather seemed to show that the latter's condition was causing her anxiety.

She withdrew very early, and, as at once appeared, in order that Sidney might hear in private what had that day happened.

The story of Clem Peckover's marriage naturally occasioned no little astonishment in Sidney.
'And how will all this affect Jane ?' he asked involuntarily.
'That is what I cannot tell,' replied Michael.