way?"

"Yes," was the wondering reply. "How did you know?"

No answer came.

"Mother!" cried Mrs. Galbraith, coming swiftly to her side and bending
over the form crumpled against the pillows.

Her face, too, was pale, and even Mr. Galbraith looked startled.

"Don't take on so, mother," her daughter whispered. "Control yourself
if you can. There may be some mistake. It is unlikely that--"

"There is no mistake," came in a hollow voice from the woman huddled in
the chair, who regarded Delight with frightened eyes. "She is my
daughter's child, sent by the mercy of heaven that I might make amends
before I went down into the grave."

Tense silence followed the assertion.

"Did your father never tell you anything, my dear, of his marriage?"
went on Madam Lee in a tone that although firmer still trembled.

"No."

"Then I can tell you--I, who drove your mother from my house when she
refused to wed a man she did not love."

Delight's great eyes widened with wonder.

"Yes," went on the elder woman with impetuous haste, "look at me. I
have grown older and wiser since those days. But I was proud when I
was young, and self-willed, and determined to have my way. I had three
daughters: Maida, whom you see here, Delight and Muriel. We lived in
Virginia and my children's beauty was the talk of the county. Maida
married Richard Galbraith, a descendant of one of our oldest families,
and I rejoiced in the alliance. For Delight, my second daughter, I
chose as husband the son of one of my oldest friends, a rich young
landholder who although older than she I knew would bring her name and
fortune. But the girl, high-spirited like myself but lacking my
ambition, would have none of him. All unbeknown to any of us, she had
fallen in love with Ralph Hathaway, a handsome, penniless adventurer
from the West. There was nothing against the man save that he was
young, headstrong, and had his way to make, but he balked me in my
plans and I hated him for it. In vain did I try to break off the
match. It was useless. The pair loved one another devotedly and
refused to be separated."

Madam Lee ceased speaking for an instant; then went on resolutely.

"When I say my daughter had all the Lee determination, you will guess
the rest. She fled from home and although I spared no money to trace
her, I never saw or heard of her again. The next year, as if in
judgment upon me, Muriel, my youngest child, died and I had but one
dau