CHAPTER I.
Philip Strong could not decide what was best to do.
The postman that evening had brought him two letters and he had just finished reading them.

He sat with his hands clasped over his knee, leaning back in his chair and looking out through his study window.

He was evidently thinking very hard and the two letters were the cause of it.
Finally he rose, went to his study door and called down the stairs, "Sarah, I wish you would come up here.

I want your help." "All right, Philip, I'll be up in a minute," responded a voice from below, and very soon the minister's wife came upstairs into her husband's study.
"What's the matter ?" she said, as she came into the room.

"It must be something very serious, for you don't call me up here unless you are in great distress.