"

"And I suppose they did. Reine, stop walking about the floor like Crazy
Jane, in your bare feet, and either come into my bed or go back to your
own."

"I am going," said Reine; "please forgive me, Nell, for spoiling your
sleep."

"Don't mention it. We can talk all the rest in the morning. If you are
allowed to go on any more now, you will be mad to-morrow, and, what is
worse, you will have a cold in your head."

Nell curled herself up in her pillows again, and was soon fast asleep.
But Reine could not sleep; and came down to breakfast next morning
looking as pale as a ghost.

After Mr. Enderby had gone to his study Nell began:

"Mamma, do you know Reine has got a bee in her bonnet!"

"My dear, where did you get such an expression?"

"Never mind. It is quite accurate. She believes that Hetty is her sister
who was drowned when she was a baby."

Mrs. Enderby looked at Reine with a face of extreme surprise.

"Nell talks so much nonsense," she said, "that I scarcely know what to
think of her speeches sometimes." And then seeing Reine's eyes full of
tears, she added kindly:

"Dear child, is there any grain of truth in what this wild little
scatter-brain has said?"

Reine burst into tears.

"Don't mind me, Mrs. Enderby, please; I have been awake all night, and I
don't feel like myself. It is only that Hetty Gray is so--so
_distressingly_ like my mother. And Nell says she was found on the
sea-shore after a storm and wrecks. And it is fourteen years ago. And
that is the very time when our vessel was wrecked, and my father and
mother believed that our baby was drowned. Oh, Mrs. Enderby, only think!
Is it not enough to turn my head?"

"It is a very remarkable coincidence at least," said Mrs. Enderby; "but,
dear Reine, try to compose your thoughts. You must not jump too hastily
at conclusions. At the end of fourteen years it will be very difficult
to find evidence to prove or disprove what you imagine may be true."

Reine shook her head. "I have thought of that; I have thought of it all
night."

"In the first place, are you quite sure about the dates?"

"Quite, on my own side. I have a little New Testament in which my father
wrote down, the day after our rescue, the date of the wreck and a record
of the baby's death."

"We must send for Mrs. Kane," said Mrs. Enderby; "and hear what she has
to say before we allow our imaginations to run away with us."

"And oh, Mrs. Enderby,--if you saw the likeness of my