The Girls at Mount Morris

he half-open door and Mrs. Bar

s Mrs.

has a latent strength that surprises one, and we have been unwitting listeners to a most

ossed my mind. They

"There seemed something to conceal, some secret between them. I had a fan

good breeding lest her mother should fall into habits of a different

, but she has proved a devoted nurse and daughter, and I will confess my prejudice has received a great shock, and I admit frankly that I m

dreadful midnight disaster, the unconsciousness of the poor woman until the next day, her hearing the child cry and claiming it unwittingly, and then learning the child's mother had been killed as wel

ddenly and paced the ro

other side of this. It is very strange," clasping

be wisdom to help the girl in any search for her parentage. Sometimes unfortunate

was gone. I must give the matter some thought. We will not be hasty. Yes, I should like

rvices if they would be ac

he night, and then you may be watcher. I

mother's lack of the qualities she liked best. She had spent hours in dreaming of a phantom mother sweet, graceful and refined, who loved all delightful things, who was stirred by music and poetry, who could receive guests with a gracious hospitality in the pretty home whic

. Nearly all the summer vacation she had sewed steadily, but she had never gi

fe I will try," was her

bronze fringe, the beautifully curved lips. It was an aristocratic face. She hardly dared think there was a resemblance, a

rtled look. Then she caught the han

he murmured. "I can neve

o sit here awhile with your mother

tatingly. "She is stronger, and

e Mrs. Dane came to relieve her. Lilian was on the ale

nger," the invalid said, "but I can't move m

ite a seve

should hav

st now. You must eat what

up at the doctor w

that I sho

lt almost ashamed of the platitude. A helple

did what I thought best then, but I did it for the sake of my aching, lonely heart. But for

in every line of

and if it is done in single mindednes

no one to claim her. Oh, what am I saying! Go away, you can

he was crying softly, and again

and looked around. Yes,

hter?" he inquired brusquely. "She seems-well is

She made a strange confession last night and it seemed almost as i

nvitation were seated. The doctor st

ago when you went out to the scene of that frightful accident from whic

that to do

his wife and daughter in your charge when h

er ill that I can recall. She decided to take Marguerite and the wet nurse who was very proud of her charge and fond of Mrs. Crawford. When we heard of the frightful disaster you may remember that I went out at once. It was a most dreary place, just a sort of freight station where the tracks crossed the through road. It could not be called a town, though now it is a thriving city and the freighting road runs miles below. When I reached the place most of the wreckage had been cleared away, the dead buried, the wounded sent to frie

he housekeeper e

fine hospital where we found, on an exhaustive examination, the spine had been injured, the ligatures strained and muscles actually torn apart. When the Major was well enough to travel-and he came very near losing his leg, it seemed, he joined us, and we journeyed on to New York. Meanwhile the Major's brother had died, a queer, penurious old fellow who had never given up his rights in the estate and now it all came to the Majo

the child?" inter

e, but it was so long before they could get about it, and it seemed like living the heart-breaking episode over, so he concluded to have it permanently

ever hear of t

to hear? The mot

first, ignorantly, then believing the mother dead,

nd began to pace the floor.

of the story. Why it seems to me there

st marvelous. Do

e mother fancies we may find some relative, a fath

sion-would she r

of having it writ

ated, you know. And-what s

family dinner. You and Mrs. Kendricks and myself, two or three dear old friends, and it would be hardly wise to mar the s

ctor. "I have known cases like hers to last week

t school. He paused at the door. She was standing by the window her profile distinctly outlined. It was classic, from the broad, shapely forehead, the down-dropped eyelids with their dark fringe, the straight nose with the fine, flexible nostril

ny? She turned. The fro

is sleeping. Is it a bad si

r on her nerves. You are a watchful

en one has done so much for

at western country town?"

er brother's, I don't remember anything of that. Yes, afterward we lived in Laconi

he negative. "She has very little stren

year or more. I was so anxious to keep in school. Oh, I ought to ha

y. "She did everything for me and I had planned whe

n her father's house, loving and beloved, the comfort of her mother! For she would have been a devoted daugh

to take first. Would you mind if I saw Mr. Ledwith? He has been the Crawford lawyer a

will not leave the poor woman. I am not sure she believes the story. She does not count on any chang

an read her to sleep again. She begged not to

he strange story and begged to see Mrs. Boyd, won

in telling it the other evening. It cannot make much difference to me, since my own mother was kill

as killed may not ha

arted in

should be certain in this. Trust me

t;" said Mrs. Barrington

convinced but s

aid you would stay-has some one come to take you away? Oh, y

Ledwith tried to explain that they might possibly fin

old you. You are not my own child, but I have loved you all these years, oh, you will stay with me! I can feel that it will not be for long. It is there in the drawer-I

e a big packet, with the superscription,

he room. Mrs. Boyd gave way to a wild fit of weeping and Lilian ha

confession?" he asked as

e and Mis

can tell whether the two will agr

overwhelming love for the child whose mother she thought dead, and she fancied the baby might be thrown on the charity of the world, but she k

aw the difference as Miss Lilian grew older and she was afraid she might have defrauded her of some better fortune. Oh, I pity the poor

at day. Then we must see how the Major will take it. It is one of the things he almost never refers to, and he was afraid of intensifying the loss by having the body brought here for bur