d, David, he has never
come. Will he ever come, do you think?"

"I think he will," I answered. "For I have seen him."

"You have seen him!" The hand was on my arm again, and, forgetful of
the hurrying crowd around us, we stood there face to face, while I told
her of the brief glimpse I had had of him four years before. She
listened, breathless, and, when I had finished, walked on in silence.

We were crossing the Plaza when she spoke again, half to me, half
ruminating. "Poor father! He must have tried and failed. He was
going to Tibet, David, you told me; that was four years ago. Where can
he be now? Wandering around the world alone, in want, perhaps, and I
have everything. Do you suppose he believes that I have forgotten
him--as if I could forget those evenings when we sat together and
painted pictures of the times when we should be rich! He called me the
princess and planned great houses in which we should live, and he would
talk of our travels and the wonderful places we should see together.
Even then I had faith that our dreams would come true, though it did
seem that we were getting poorer and poorer all the time, and father
doing nothing to help our plight. The dreams came true, David--for me.
Why doesn't he come and share them with me, with me and Uncle Rufus?
That is what troubles me; that is what I can never understand."

I said to myself that Rufus Blight, were he so minded, could clear the
mystery away. I thought of him as a selfish, arrogant man, who was,
perhaps, too well satisfied not to have an undesirable third person in
his household to undertake any sincere search for his brother. But
these thoughts I concealed. There was something behind it all that we
two could not understand, I said, and Penelope looked up to me with
clouded eyes.

"But we will find him, Penelope!" My stick hit the pavement as I
registered a vow. "We will find him--you and I."

"How like the little David you are," she cried, and then smiling light
broke through the clouded eyes. "We shall try to find him, anyway,
shall we not--to bring father home. For look, David!" She had halted.
The small gloved hand was lifted, and the blue wings in her hat moved
with an old-time majesty. "There is the palace we dreamed of!"

CHAPTER XVI

Penelope and I were standing before a great gray-stone house. I
carried my eyes from the doors of iron grill-work over the severe
breadth of wall, broken only by rank above