'And if I find them, and find my suspicions correct, what shall I do
then?' he asked himself over and over again; and once made answer to his
question: 'I will either make restitution, or drown myself in the
Rhine.'

Jerrie was a constant source of misery to Frank, and yet when she was at
home he was always managing to have her at the park house, where he
could see her, and watch her, as she moved like a young queen though the
handsome rooms, or frolicked with Maude upon the lawn.

'She is surely Gretchen's daughter, and Arthur's, too,' he would say to
himself, as he, too, detected in her face the likeness to his brother,
which had so startled Jerrie in the mirror.

He was always exceedingly kind to her, and almost as proud of her
success at Vassar as Arthur himself; and on the day when she was
expected home he went two or three times to the cottage in the lane,
carrying fruit and flowers, and even offering things more substantial,
which, however, were promptly declined by Mrs. Crawford, who had
signified her intention to take nothing more for Jerrie's board.

'The girl pays for herself, or will,' she said, 'and it is Harold's wish
and mine to be independent.'

But she accepted the fruit and the flowers and wondered a little to see
Frank so excited, and nervous, and anxious that every thing should be
done to make Jerrie's final home-coming as pleasant as possible.

It was a lovely July afternoon when the young ladies from Vassar were
expected, but the train was half an hour late, and the carriage from
Grassy Spring and the carriage from Le Bateau had waited so long that
both coachmen were asleep upon their respective boxes, when at last the
whistle was heard among the hills telling that the cars were coming. The
Tracy carriage was not there, though twenty minutes before train time
Maude had come down in the victoria, and on learning of the delay had
been driven rapidly to the cottage in the lane, from which she had not
returned when at last the cars stopped before the station and the young
people alighted upon the platform, which, with their luggage, seemed at
once to be full.

'Your checks, miss,' the coachman from Grassy Spring said to Nina, as he
touched his hat regretfully to her, and his words were repeated to Ann
Eliza by the servant from Le Bateau.

But Jerrie held hers in her hand with a rueful look of disappointment on
her face as she looked in vain for Harold or Maude to greet her. For a
single momen