t she was wanted.

The poor woman, jumping to the conclusion that some one of the household
servants was ill and in need of her ministrations, got up at once and
inquired who it was.

"It is a friend of yours who is ill at the Reindeer Hotel at Wendover,
and desires to see you," said Emma, beginning gently to break to the
poor mother the news that it was her dying daughter who had sent for
her.

"Friend? I am sure I have no friend who is near enough to send for me,
at dead of night, to come sixteen miles to see him, or her, as the case
may be," said the widow, looking very much perplexed, as she hastened to
put on her clothes.

"I should have said a relative--a very near relative--a long-lost--"
began Emma, but her voice broke down in sobs.

"It is Ivy!" exclaimed Mrs. Fanning, as a swift intuition revealed to
her the truth.

"Yes, it is Ivy," wept Emma, throwing her arms around the afflicted
woman. "And oh, is it not better so--better at once to know her fate,
even to know her safe in the peace of death, than to go on enduring this
dreadful uncertainty about her?"

"Oh, my child, my child! Oh, my child, my child!" wept the poor mother,
scarcely able, through sobs and tears, and failings of heart and frame,
to complete her simple toilet.

Emma, with great sympathy and tenderness, assisted her to dress, pinned
the shawl around her shoulders, tied the bonnet strings under her chin,
and brought her her gloves and pocket-handkerchief.

"I will now run and get my hat and sack, Aunt Katharine. I will go with
you to Wendover," she said.

"You go with me? My dear child, you have been so long parted from your
husband, and only received him back to-night, and leave him to go with
me? No, no! I can not permit you to do so, Emma," said the weeping lady.

"But you need me, Aunt Katharine, and I should be utterly unworthy of my
dear Alden's love if I could fail you in your time of trouble. Besides,
I think Alden, also, will go back with you to Wendover."

"Heaven bless you both! You are the solace of my sad old age," said the
widow, earnestly.

Emma ran out, and soon returned prepared for her sudden night ride.

Then she took her poor aunt's arm within her own and supported her as
they walked down-stairs together.

In the hall below they met Alden Lytton, also prepared for the journey.

He did not seem at all surprised to see Emma in her hat and _paletot_.
He understood her too well for that. He merely inquired if