“ He was sane enough then, to all ap pearance, but he hated the very thought of her previous marriage, and made her promise never to speak of it, never to tell me that he was not my real father. She was helplessly submissive to him, and she promised all, only after wards her love for me moved her to confide in Mrs. Crofton, for my Bake ; she knew I should want friends some day. My own father was a young clergyman named Ainslie ; he dearly loved my mother, but he was the younger son of a high, proud family, and when he married my mother, they cast him off. Mrs. Crofton told me all that my mother had said to her of this family, told me where they lived, and how it had been my mother’s wish that, if ever I vsasje.fi without her, and neglected or aban doned by Mr. Hurst, I should com municate with my own father e friends, and see if they would help me. And so I did. I have now an uncle and aunt, my father’s brother and sister, who are both unmarried, and keep up the old family home. They have been kind to me in their cold, distant way, and would have had me to live wi:h them, if I had been willing. But I had grown to like my work when they made the proposal, and I felt sure that a busy, practical life such as a nurse’s must be, would help me better to forget than a quiet existence in an old country house.”

Mrs. Everton had listened to Carrie’s long explanation with strangely mingled feelings. If this were all true —and il must be true —why should not Hubert be happy ? But the girl’s story had brought them to the Seymours’ door, and Carrie was in haste to depart. “ I must see you again to-morrow; you will come here and see me, will you not, Carrie ? You will come and visit me at Wynterham soon, I hope,” Mrs. Everton said, eagerly. 