CHAPTER XXXIII KIT’S DAY

It had happened so suddenly that it was difficult to realize. Such a trifling accident—one which might occur a dozen times and have no ill result—just a false step and the missing of a single stair. Then a helpless pitching forward of the body . . . and death. Shirley still sometimes felt as if it were all impossible—could never have taken place. Yet that was how Sir John had died. A brief flight of three or four stairs led from his bedroom into the adjoining bathroom, and in descending them one morning he missed h…