Et sans cesse je me dis, 'C'est une punition du Ciel.'" Gabrielle saw that, to the outside world, it was a statement by a frantic mother that her child had caught scarlet-fever.

"What could it really mean ?" she wondered.
Slowly she read it, and as she did so noticed the curious effect it had upon her father, seated as he was in the deep saddle-bag chair.

His face grew very grave, his thin white hands clenched themselves, and there was an unusually bitter expression about his mouth.
"Eh ?" he asked, as though not quite certain of the words.

"Read it again, child, slower.

I--I have to think." She obeyed, wondering if the key to the cryptic message were contained in some conjunction of letters or words.