e like that. But yes, do. Oh, Hetty, my mother, my
mother!"

And Reine leaned her arms on the table, and laid her head on them, and
wept.

Hetty stood by wondering, and stroked her head timidly for sympathy.

"Don't think me a great goose," said Reine, looking up. And then
suddenly silent again she sat staring at Hetty. After a few moments she
sprang up and folded her arms round her and held her close.

"You strange darling, where have you come from; and how am I ever to let
you go again?"

A step was heard at the door, and Reine and Hetty instinctively withdrew
from each other's embrace. There was something sacred about the feeling
which had so suddenly and unexpectedly overpowered them both.

Nell came in.

"Reine, I have been looking for you everywhere."

"I came here to thank Miss Gray for her design," said Reine, "and I
don't think I have even mentioned it yet."

"You are as pale as death," said Nell. "What has Hetty been saying to
you?"

"Nothing," said Reine absently, her eyes going back to Hetty's face and
fixing themselves there.

"How you stare at each other!" said Nell, "and I declare your two faces
are almost the same this moment."

"Nell!"

"I always said you were like each other, though Phyllis could not see
it. Now I am sure of it."

A wild look came into Reine's face.

"That would be too strange," she said; "for she is so like--so
like--some one--Oh, Nell, she is the very image of my mother!"

"Your mother!" echoed Nell, gazing at Hetty and thinking she did not
look like anybody's mother, with her short frock and flowing hair.

"But there is the dinner-bell!" she cried, glad of the interruption; for
Nell had a great dislike of anything like a sentimental scene. "You must
talk about all this afterwards, for we must not be late."

"I will come," said Reine, passing her handkerchief over her face. "Do I
look as if I had been crying."

"Your nose is a little red," said Nell; "but they will think it is the
cold."

"Then don't say anything about this," said Reine; "but I must come and
see Hetty again. Goodnight, darling little mother!"

"Reine, all my respect for you is gone," said Nell as they hastened
toward the dining-room. "I thought you were as wise as Phyllis. And to
think of you crying and kissing like that because Hetty reminds you
of--"

"Don't, Nell," said Reine. "I can't bear any more just now."

CHAPTER XIX.

IF SHE WAS DROWNED, HOW CAN SHE BE HETTY?

A fe