How?
Well, he should soon know.

But now, at first, for his mother.
When he entered the House on the Hill, he had a sudden shiver.

Somehow, the room where his mother had sat for so many years, and where he had last seen his father, John Grier, had a coldness of the tomb.

There was a letter on the centre table standing against the lamp.

He saw it was in his mother's handwriting, and addressed to himself.
He tore it open, and began to read.