w--I thought you would guess. A child might guess. She told me
you had seen the locket--_Natalie to Natalushka_--was not that enough?"

"If Miss Lind herself did not guess that her mother was alive, how
should I?"

"If you have been brought up for sixteen or eighteen years to mourn one
as dead, you do not quickly imagine that he or she is not dead: you
perceive?"

"Well, it is extraordinary enough," said Brand, thoughtfully. "With such
a daughter, if she has the heart of a mother at all, how could she
remain away from her for sixteen years?"

A thought struck him, and his forehead colored quickly.

"There was no disgrace?"

At this word Calabressa started, and the small eyes flashed fire.

"I tell you, monsieur, that it is not in my presence that any one must
mention the word disgrace and also the name of Natalie Berezolyi. No; I
will answer--I myself--I will answer for the good name of Natalie
Berezolyi, by the bounty of Heaven!"

He shrugged his shoulders.

"You are ignorant--you made a mistake. And I--well, you perceive,
monsieur, that I am not ashamed to confess--I loved her; she was the
radiant light, the star of my life!"

"La lumiere rayonnante, l'etoile de ma vie!"--the phrases sounded
ridiculous enough when uttered by this histrionic person; but even his
self-conscious gesticulation did not offend Brand. This man, at all
events, had loved the mother of Natalie.

"Then it was some very powerful motive that kept mother and daughter
apart?" said he.

"Yes; I cannot explain it all to you, if I quite know it all. But every
year the mother comes with a birthday present of flowers for the child,
and watches to see her once or twice; and then away back she goes to the
retreat of her father. Ah, the devotion of that beautiful saint! If
there is a heaven at all, Natalie Berezolyi will be among the angels."

"Then you have come to tell Natalie that her mother is alive. I envy
you. How grateful the girl will be to you!"

"I? What, I? No, truly, I dare not. And that is why I wish to speak to
you: I thought perhaps you would guess, or find out: then I say, do not
utter a word! Why do I give you this secret? Why have I sought to speak
with you, monsieur? Well, if you will not speak, I will. Something the
little Natalushka said--to me she must always be the little Natalushka
in name, though she is so handsome a woman now--something she said to me
revealed a little secret. Then I said, 'Perhaps Natalushka will