In Luck at Last

is studio, sat down

about noon by

, "this is a moment of the greatest excitement and importa

ng to h

xiety and trouble? On acco

crying. In her hands sh

more important than t

aged to h

m not come here about your engagement. And yo

o have your good

erted me and married the governess. You men want to have

g, Clara. Pray u

wishes, whatever he chose to do, but that I would not on any account r

, and all the things that you have given me, they are, o

is far more important. Something has happened; something I always expected; something that I looked forward to for years; although it has waited on the way so long, i

l to interrupt her. She had her own way of

plenty of rope, as you would say. But still it has come

editary go

hope he will come. But for my own part, I have not the least intention of calling upon the governess.' Then three or four years passed away,

y come? Oh, Clara, this

fortune. I have been living all these years o

And now he has dropped u

morning from a person called Dr. Joseph Washington, stating that he wrote

. Joseph W

ian, he says, a

ill you

I rejoice to think that he has left some one behind him. Arnold, that face upon your canvas really has got eyes wonderfully l

him, Clara, who inflic

said he had come to London with the heiress. But he called an hour ago, and brought me-oh, Arnold, he brought me one more letter from Claude. It has been waiting for me for eighteen years. After all that time, after eighteen years, my poor dead Claude speaks to me again. My dear, when I thought he was miserable on acco

" said

ld. It was the child'

cidence," he sa

will be kind to her, as you would to me, if I were to come

ve you any other proo

een, and showed me the certificate of marriage, and the child's certificate

, Clara. But why was not th

ving the child, she was adopted by these charitable Americans, and no one ever t

ot seen the

to bring he

man is this American

y without any hesitation that he is not a gentleman, as we count good breeding and good manners. He is a big man,

ed. "I beg your pardon, Clara; pray

a farm, or a house or two, or a few hundreds in the stocks. He is to bring her to-morrow, and of course I shall ma

r himself, then? Tha

irth, but has provincial manners. He said, however, that he had no objection to receiving the small amount of money spent on the voyage and on Iris's outfit, because they were not rich people, and it was a serious thing to fit out a young

ell educa

ation. He said I might rest assured that she was ladylike

ee," said Arnold, laughing.

ddly that she had a most splendid figure, which fetch

he first circles, and is a survival of the Pilgrim Fat

the circumstances, the outfit and the voyage, a

should have seen the young lady first. Remember, you

honest eyes. Besides, he brought me all those letters. Well, dear, you are not going to desert me b

est-no, not the greatest pleasure. But I wil

eritance, and this other Iris had crossed the ocean to receive hers. Yet a very strange coincidence. It was so strange that he told it to Iris and to Lala Roy. Iris laughed, and said she did not know she had a si