ll not be one of the family," Jeanne said.

"Not yet, Jeanne. But mother will look upon you as her daughter
directly I tell her that you have promised to become so in reality
some day."

Harry's reception, when with the two girls he drove up in a hackney
coach to the house at Cheyne Walk, was overwhelming, and the two
French girls were at first almost bewildered by the rush of boys
and girls who tore down the steps and threw themselves upon Harry's
neck.

"You will stifle me between you all," Harry said, after he had
responded to the embraces. "Where are father and mother?"

"Father is out, and mother is in the garden. No, there she is"--as
Mrs. Sandwith, pale and agitated, appeared at the door, having
hurried in when one of the young ones had shouted out from a back
window: "Harry has come!"

"Oh, my boy, we had given you up," she sobbed as Harry rushed into
her arms.

"I am worth a great many dead men yet, mother. But now let me
introduce to you Mesdemoiselles Jeanne and Virginie de St. Caux,
of whom I have written to you so often. They are orphans, mother,
and I have promised them that you and father will fill the place
of their parents."

"That will we willingly," Mrs. Sandwith said, turning to the girls
and kissing them with motherly kindness. "Come in, my dears, and
welcome home for the sake of my dear boy, and for that of your
parents who were so kind to him. Never mind all these wild young
people," she added, as the boys and girls pressed round to shake
hands with the new-comers. "You will get accustomed to their way
presently. Do you speak in English?"

"Enough to understand," Jeanne said; "but not enough to speak much.
Thank you, madame, for receiving us so kindly, for we are all alone
in the world."

Mrs. Sandwith saw the girl's lip quiver, and putting aside her
longing to talk to her son, said:

"Harry, do take them all out in the garden for a short time. They
are all talking at once, and this is a perfect babel."

And thus having cleared the room she sat down to talk to the two
girls, and soon made them feel at home with her by her unaffected
kindness. Dr. Sandwith soon afterwards ran out to the excited
chattering group in the garden, and after a few minutes' happy talk
with him, Harry spoke to him of the visitors who were closeted with
his mother.

"I want you to make them feel it is their home, father. They will
be no burden pecuniarily, for there are money and jewels worth a
large su