to join her brother on the floor.

At sight of his father, the boy, with a whoop, scrambled to his feet,
and, with outstretched arms and open mouth, showing all his little white
teeth, made a rush for him, while the young lady suddenly changed her
efforts to descend, and began to jump up and down in a frantic ecstasy
of delight.

Norman gathered the boy up, and as soon as he could disentwine his
little arms from about his neck, turned him toward Keith. The child gave
the stranger one of those calm, scrutinizing looks that children give,
and then, his face suddenly breaking into a smile, with a rippling laugh
of good-comradeship, he sprang into Keith's outstretched arms. That
gentleman's necktie was in danger of undergoing the same damaging
process that had incurred Mrs. Norman's criticism, when the youngster
discovered that lady herself, standing at the door. Scrambling down from
his perch on Keith's shoulder, the boy, with a shout, rushed toward his
mother. Mrs. Wentworth, with a little shriek, stopped him and held him
off from her; she could not permit him to disarrange her toilet; her
coiffure had cost too much thought; but the pair were evidently on terms
of good-fellowship, and the light in the mother's eyes even as she
restrained the boy's attempt at caresses changed her, and gave Keith a
new insight into her character.

Keith and the hostess returned to the drawing-room before Norman, and
she was no longer the professional beauty, the cold woman of the world,
the mere fashionable hostess. The doors were flung open more than once
as Keith talked warmly of the boy, and within Keith got glimpses of what
was hidden there, which made him rejoice again that his friend had such
a treasure. These glimpses of unexpected softness drew him nearer to her
than he had ever expected to be, and on his part he talked to her with a
frankness and earnestness which sank deep into her mind, and opened the
way to a warmer friendship than she usually gave.

"Norman is right," she said to herself. "This is a man."

At the thought a light flashed upon her. It suddenly came to her.

This is "the ghost"! Yet could it be possible? She solved the question
quickly.

"Mr. Keith, did you ever know Alice Lancaster?"

"Alice Lancaster--?" For a bare second he looked puzzled. "Oh, Miss
Alice Yorke? Yes, a long time ago." He was conscious that his expression
had changed. So he added: "I used to know her very well."

"Decidedly, this is t