et. "Washburn! Marjorie Washburn! That sounds familiar,
both those names occur in my uncle's family, his wife and his
daughter,--ah, I recall it now, that was the name of my cousin's
little daughter. Strange!--what! what is this?" He had opened the
locket and was gazing in astonishment at the beautiful face.
"This,--this is her picture, the picture of my cousin, Edna Cameron
Washburn! What is the meaning of this?" And, unable to say anything
further, he looked to Lyle for an explanation.

She, too, was nearly speechless with astonishment. "What did you say
was her name?" she stammered.

Houston repeated the name, while a strange light began to dawn in his
face.

"She was my mother," Lyle said simply. She could say nothing more, the
walls of the little room seemed to be whirling rapidly about her, and
she could see nothing distinctly.

Faintly, as though sounding far in the distance, she heard Houston's
voice as he exclaimed:

"Can it be possible? and yet, you resemble her! Why have I never
thought of it before? She had a little daughter Marjorie, whom we
always supposed was killed in the wreck in which her own life was
lost."

"And this," said Lyle, holding out the letter, but speaking with great
effort, for the room was growing very dark, and a strange numbness
seemed stealing over heart and brain, "this tells that I was stolen
from the side of my dead mother who was killed in a wreck--" She could
get no farther, and she knew nothing of his reply. A thick darkness
seemed to envelop her, fast shutting out all sense even of life
itself. There was a sound for an instant like the deafening roar of
waters surging about her, and then she seemed sinking down, down into
infinite depths, until she lost all consciousness. For the first time
in her life she had fainted.

Houston caught her as she was falling, and a moment later the little
group outside were startled by his sudden appearance.

"Leslie," he said, in quick, low tones, "you and Morton come to my
room. Lyle has fainted."

"What is the trouble, Everard?" asked Ned, springing to his feet.
"Anything serious?"

"I think not," was Houston's reply. "Her fainting was the result of
over-excitement. Come into my room, Ned, when she has revived, I think
I have made a discovery in which we will all be interested."

When he returned Lyle was beginning to revive, though unable to speak,
and leaving her in the care of Leslie and Morton for a few moments,
Houston has