tic halo, and some high-browed watchers, gazing
from child to maiden, uttering strangely significant speech about "one
of the least of these."

Upon the next morning both Sir Donald and Esther rise late. Bessie still
sleeps. With some doubt Esther leads her father to the cot. She is not
quite sure about that quilt episode.

Sir Donald gazes at the child, and his eyes grow lustrous. Stooping
down, he kisses the baby brow. Giving Esther a querulous smile, he
returns to the library.

* * * * *

Weeks have passed since the arrival of Bessie at Northfield. Sir Donald
made conscientious inquiry for "Granny." No one knows the child's
antecedents. Bessie can furnish no clearer clews to her identity. She
is happy in her new home. Many little surprises for the pleasure of
Bessie are planned by the generous Esther. Interest in childish whims is
so genuine as to check pensive, abstracted moods. These ministrations
revive drooping spirits. Bessie's eccentricities become Northfield
household tonic.

Commenting on this change to Esther, Sir Donald says: "Relaxed emotional
tension and less concentrated musings permit more hopeful view and
brighter horoscope. I now feel greatly relieved. This generous
disposition of yours I now regard as acme of human dower. Its Paris and
Calcutta whims once seemed pretty symptoms of harmless infatuation. I am
now impressed with the mystic coherence of detached coincidents. There
is ever-widening horizon to that which 'cometh without observation.'"

Charles Randolph is in London. Much interested in the issue of Lanier
action, Charles chafes under long delays. He so earnestly had tried to
cheer Esther by favorable comments upon the conduct of Oswald Langdon
and by hopeful words about early vindication as to become a most zealous
advocate.

As neither Lanier knew Charles, Sir Donald consented that he visit
London.

Charles called at detective headquarters. Through his father's
recommendation he was taken into full confidence. He assumed a disguise
and shadowed the Laniers. Both at that basement room and upon the Thames
he noted Lanier crafty shifts and fearfully significant crazes.

Soon after reaching London, Charles became much interested in a
middle-aged gentleman and a young lady who sometimes dined together at
the same hotel where he was stopping. His diary tells its own story:

"Both have most serious, refined manners, and talk little except with
each othe