it slightly; and he gathered her to
him still more closely, as he went on.

"I've got the strangest news to tell you, Celia. You will think that you
are dreaming, as I have been dreaming ever since I myself heard it."

"They have been talking, saying strange things--the servants, I
mean--and Mrs. Dexter came in just now and tried to tell me--something;
but she was too excited and checked herself; she said I should hear it
from you! What is it, Syd----But I'm not to call you that? What am I to
call you?"

"Derrick," he said; "it is the name that you shall always call me by;
but the world will know me as Lord Heyton."

She started in his arms and, drawing back her head, gazed up at him in
amazement; and she listened as he told her the wonderful news; at first
with bewilderment and then with a gravity and a lack of enthusiasm which
surprised him.

"You are glad, dearest?" he asked. "You are surprised, astonished, of
course? It takes some time to realize. You are glad?"

"Are you?" she asked in a low voice.

Derrick shrugged his shoulders; then, as if he were ashamed of the
gesture, he said quickly,

"That I have found a father--and such a father--yes. And I have found a
mother too. Have you guessed that it is the Donna Elvira I have told you
so much about? You are surprised; and no wonder. It is part of the
strange story. I will tell you all about her presently. Of course, I am
glad. I was all alone in the world--but for you--but for you, Celia! and
the loneliness was hard sometimes to bear. But for the rest, the title
and the estates and the other things, I welcome them only because you
will share them with me. Celia, I'm not such an idiot as not to realize
that I am coming to you as something more than a penniless adventurer,
well-nigh nameless, a man of no account. If I had all the world at my
command, the highest title a man could bear, I should only value them
because I could lay them at your feet."

The tears welled to her eyes and, of her own accord, she drew his head
down to her and laid her sweet lips on his.

"You are too good to me; I am not worth it," she said, brokenly. Then,
with something like a start, she whispered, with a dawning fear and
horror in her eyes, "And the other--Lord Heyton? And his wife! Oh, poor,
poor woman! And she has borne so much already! She is lying there,
upstairs, prostrated. Who is to tell her? Oh, Derrick, dearest, who is
to tell her?"

"You," he said, gently. "No one