a put her arms about his neck and laid her head
upon his breast.

"You are the only one united to me by near ties of blood in the world,"
Sir Stuart continued, and he laid his hand on Linda's head and turned
her face towards him. "You have your mother's eyes," he said. "We will
go back to England, and Fernborough Hall will have a mistress once more.
You are English born, and have a right to sit in that seat which might
have been your mother's but for the pride and prejudice which thirty
years ago ruled both your grandmother and myself."

Leaving them to talk over future plans, Quincy went back to the hotel
and wrote two letters. The first was addressed to Lord Algernon Hastings
in London. The other was a brief note to Aunt Ella, informing her that a
party of four would start for Boston on the morning train and that she
might expect them about four o'clock in the afternoon.

It lacked but five minutes of that hour when a carriage, containing the
party from New York, stopped before the Mt. Vernon Street house. It
suited Quincy's purpose that his companions should first meet his wife,
although the fact that she was his wife was as yet unknown to them.

The meeting between Alice and Linda was friendly, but not effusive. They
had been ordinary acquaintances in the old days at Eastborough, but now
a mutual satisfaction and pleasure drew them more closely together.

"I have come," said Linda, "to thank you, Miss Pettengill, for your
kindness and justice to me. Few women would have disregarded the solemn
oath that Mrs. Putnam forced you to take, but by doing so you have given
me a lawful name and a life of happiness for the future. May every
blessing that Heaven can send to you be yours."

"All the credit should not be given to me," replied Alice. "The morning
after Mrs. Putnam's death I was undecided in my mind which course to
follow, whether to destroy the paper or to keep it. It was a few words
from my Uncle Isaac that enabled me to decide the matter. He told me
that a promise made to the dead should not be carried out if it
interfered with the just rights of the living. So I decided to keep the
paper, but how? It was then that Mr. Sawyer came to the rescue and
pointed out to me the line of action, which I am truly happy to learn
has ended so pleasantly."

"Grandpa and I have both thanked Mr. Sawyer so much," said Linda, "that
he will not listen to us any more, but I will write to Uncle Ike, for I
used to call him by