wen had been conscious at first, had
become modified as the weeks went by. The removal to the new house had, no
doubt, in part contributed to this result; and, very soon, if she did not
forget the impression of revived remembrance of which she had been aware
at first, she ceased to be conscious that any trace of it remained. She
did not, indeed, forget that it had been; she remembered vividly the fact
that, when she first entered the old house, she had almost felt as if she
had come home. That feeling had now almost passed away. But she was
beginning to ponder certain things which seemed to be connected with it in
some vague way.

Though she had often been told of the circumstances under which she had
been rescued from a life of poverty and possible shame, her own
recollection of the matter was very dim. She seemed to remember a time of
great trouble, and then a sudden change, since which all had been happy
and bright; and certainly, if she had not been definitely informed of the
fact, she would never have suspected that the kind friends to whom she
owed so much were not her actual parents. That vague reminiscence of early
distress would have lingered with her as the memory of a troubled dream,
and nothing more.

Hitherto she had not been anxious for further information concerning her
parentage and early life. There were times when she felt some small
measure of dissatisfaction at the thought that she did not know who she
really was. But this feeling was held in check by the consideration that,
if her parents had been good and kind, she would probably not have been in
a position to need the loving service which had been rendered to her by
Mr. and Mrs. Burton; and she felt that she would a thousand times rather
have them for her father and mother, than be compelled to give those dear
names to such persons as it was more than likely her actual parents had
been. For the most part, therefore, she had feared, rather than hoped,
that her real father and mother might appear.

Now, however, vague surmisings were being awakened in the mind of the
young secretary. Her kind employer had mysteriously lost a little girl.
This suggested to her a new set of possibilities as to her own past. It
came to her mind that perhaps she also had been lost, and that the misery
she vaguely remembered, had been inflicted by other hands than those of
her parents. If, like little Marian, she had actually wandered away, it
was probably no fault of