on
her face.

"You are our baby who was supposed to have been drowned," said Reine.
_"That's_ how it comes to be. We were wrecked going to France, and you
were washed out of my mother's arms. And we thought you were drowned.
But God was keeping you safe for me at Wavertree."

"How have you found it all out?" said Hetty, still holding fast by her
doubt, which seemed the only plank that could save her from destruction
in case this enchanting story should prove to be all a dream.

"It is completely proved, you little sceptic!" cried Reine. "Mr. Enderby
would not have you told till the lawyers had pronounced you to be Helen
Gaythorne. So ask me no more questions at present, but give me back some
of my kisses. You and I are never going to part any more; are we?"

Hetty gave her a long, strange, troubled look, and then suddenly broke
out into wild weeping.

"Oh, is it true? Is it really true? Oh, Reine, my sister; if, after
this, it comes to be false--I shall die!"

"It cannot come to be false, because it is reality," insisted Reine, as
she rocked her weeping sister in her arms. "I shall be mother and sister
and all to you, Helen--my poor little motherless darling! Cry away, my
dearest, for this once, and then you shall have some tea. And after that
you are never to cry any more. You and I will have a great deal too much
to say and do together to spend our time over crying. But oh,
Hetty--Helen--if mother and father were only here this day!"

And then Reine cried again herself, and Hetty was the comforter. They
sat with their young heads together and their warm cheeks touching, and
told as much of their life's stories to each other as they could think
of at the moment. To Reine the great discovery had come gradually, and
so the present hour was not so strange as it was to Hetty. For Hetty the
world seemed to have got suddenly under a spell of enchantment. She
could not believe in herself as Helen Gaythorne--could not get
accustomed to her new vision of life.

"And I shall not need to be a governess. And perhaps I may be an artist
if I like."

"You will not need to be either. There is enough of wealth for both of
us," said Reine. "But you can study art to your heart's content. And we
will go to Italy. And you shall be as happy as a queen."

* * * * *

And here I think we may take leave of Hetty Gray, in the fulness of her
happiness, and in Reine's loving arms. When I last heard of t