when he woke with the specious argument that he was acting justly and
even generously by the little waif, who was like a sunbeam in the
cottage in the lane, whom many people went to see, marvelling at her
beauty and wondering in vain whose likeness they sometimes saw in her as
she frolicked around the house, full of life, and fun, and laughter.

Frank made his will, as he promised his shadow he would, but he went to
Springfield to have it drawn up, for he knew that Colvin, or any lawyer
whom he might employ in Shannondale, would wonder at it. He also wrote
out himself what he called his dying request to his children, in case he
should die before his brother. In this he stated emphatically his wish
that Jerry should have her share of whatever might come to them from the
Tracy estate, the same as if she were his own child.

'I have a good and sufficient reason for this,' he wrote in conclusion,
'and I enjoin it upon you to carry out my wishes as readily as you would
were I to speak to you from my grave,'

This done, Frank felt a little better, and the shadow at his side was
not quite as real as it had been before. He put his will and his dying
request together in a private drawer with Gretchen's photograph, and the
testament with the handwriting in it. He had kept this back when the
stranger's trunk was sent to the cottage, thinking that if it were
missed and inquired for, he could easily produce it as having been
mislaid. At the suggestion of Mr. St. Claire he went to New York, to the
office of the German line of steamers, and made inquiries with regard to
the passengers who had come on a certain ship at such a time. But
nothing could be learned of any woman with a child, and after inserting
in several of the New York papers a description of the woman, with a
request for any information concerning her which could be given, he
returned home, with a feeling that he had done all that could be
required of him, and that he might now enjoy himself.

He was accordingly kind and even tender to his brother, who for several
weeks suffered from low nervous depression, which kept him altogether in
his room, to which he refused to admit any one except his attendant and
Frank. He had ceased for the time being, to talk of Gretchen, or to
expect her, and he never inquired for the child, whose blue hood had so
affected him. Once Frank spoke of her to him and told him where she was,
and that she was learning to speak English very rapidl