timidly.

Her husband eyed her with a faint and thoughtful frown.

"It seems to me that that is rather a fantastic theory, dear! Where
would this child be all this time?"

"Kate" Alice said, simply.

"Kate!" he echoed, struck. And Alice saw, with a sinking heart, that he
was impressed. After a full moment of silence he said, simply: "You
think this is the child?"

"Chris," his wife cried, appealingly, "I don't say I think so! But it
occurred to me that it might be. I hope, with all my soul, that you
don't think so!"

"I'm afraid," he answered, thoughtfully, "that I do!"

Alice's eyes filled with tears, and she tightened her fingers in his
without speaking.

"The idea being," Christopher mused, "that Mrs. Sheridan brought the
baby home, and has raised her. That makes Miss Sheridan--Norma--the
child of Annie and that German blackguard!"

"I suppose so!" Alice admitted, despairingly.

"But why has it been kept quiet all this time!"

"Well, that," Alice said, "I don't understand. But this I _am_ sure of:
Annie hasn't the faintest suspicion of it! She supposes that the whole
thing ended with her terrible illness. She was only eighteen, and
younger and more childish even than Leslie is! Oh, Chris," said Alice,
her eyes watering, "isn't it horrible! To come to us, of all people!
Will everybody know?"

"Well, it all depends. It's a nasty sort of business, but I suppose
there's no help for it. How much does Hendrick know?"

"About Annie? Oh, everything that she does; I know that. Annie told him,
and Judge Lee told him about Mueller and the divorce, or nullification,
or whatever it was! There was nothing left unexplained there. But if the
child lived, she didn't know that--only Mama did, and Kate. Oh, poor
Annie, it would kill her to have all that raked up now! Why Kate kept it
secret all these years----"

"I must say," Christopher exclaimed, "that----By George, I hate this
sort of thing! No help for it, I suppose. But if it gets out we shall
all be in for a sweet lot of notoriety. We shall just have to make terms
with these Sheridans, and keep our mouths shut. I didn't get the idea
that they were holding your mother up. I believe it's more that she
wants justice done; she would, you know, for the sake of the family. The
girl herself, this Norma, evidently hasn't been raised on any
expectations--probably knows nothing about it!"

"Oh, I'm sure of that!" Alice agreed, eagerly. "And if she has Melrose
blood in h