soft, fluffy folds around her feet, and fitted her superb figure
perfectly. She knew how well it became her, and sure of Arthur's
approbation, went back to the parlor, where she had left him. Arthur was
standing with his back to the door when she came in, and going up to
him, she said:

'Here I am in all my gewgaws. Do you think I shall pass muster?'

She spoke in German, as she always did to him, and when he turned
quickly, there was a startled look on his face, as he said:

'Oh, Cherry, it's you! I thought for a moment it was Gretchen speaking
to me. Just so she used to come in with her light footstep and soft
voice, so much like yours. Where is she, Cherry, that she never comes
nor writes? Where is Gretchen now?'

His chin quivered as he talked, and there was a moisture in his eyes,
bent so fondly upon the young girl beside him. He was worn with the
fatigue and excitement of his journey and the long drive he had taken,
and Jerrie knew that whenever he was tired his mind was weaker and
wandered more thin usual. So she tried to quiet and divert him by
calling his attention to her dress, and asking how he liked it.

'It is lovely,' he said, examining the lace and the soft flounces. 'It
is the prettiest Maude and I could find. You know, she was with me, and
helped me select it. Yes, it's lovely, and so are you, Cherry, with
Gretchen's eyes and hair, and smile, and that one dimple in your cheek.
She used to wear soft, white dresses, and in this you are enough like
her to be her daughter.'

They were standing side by side before a long mirror, she taller for a
woman than he was for a man, so that her face was almost in a range with
his, as he stooped a little forward.

Glancing into the mirror at the two faces so near to each other, Jerrie
saw something which for an instant made her cold and sick, and set every
nerve to quivering as she stepped suddenly back, looking first at the
man's face and then at her own in the mirror. It was gone now, the look
which had so startled her, but it had certainly been there--a likeness
between the two faces--and she had seen it plainer than she had ever
seen any resemblance between herself and the picture. Gretchen had blue
eyes, and fair hair, and fair complexion, and so had she, and so had
hundreds of German girls, and all Arthur had ever said to her had never
brought to her mind a thought like the two faces in the mirror. _What if
it were so?_ That was the thought which had flas