Pale and anxious she rode up the avenue which led to her home.
A strange silence pervaded the place.

The servants moved sadly from place to place, and spoke in subdued tones.

The windows were heavily draped with crape, and a funeral air pervaded the house.
Mammy Liza met her at the door, and, with streaming eyes and convulsive sobs, folded her to her heart, as Iola exclaimed, in tones of hopeless anguish:-- "Oh, papa's dead!" "Oh, my pore baby!" said mammy, "ain't you hearn tell 'bout it?
Yore par's dead, an' your mar's bin drefful sick.

She's better now." Mam Liza stepped lightly into Mrs.Leroy's room, and gently apprised her of Iola's arrival.

In a darkened room lay the stricken mother, almost distracted by her late bereavement.
"Oh, Iola," she exclaimed, as her daughter entered, "is this you?
I am so sorry you came." Then, burying her head in Iola's bosom, she wept convulsively.