is matter over with my lady, and gave her a solemn
promise to protect her child, and the honor of her name, with my life,
if that were needed. The very night of her death Lady Hope gave all the
papers necessary to the recognition of her child to my son. He brought
them home, and, while the children were asleep, we two pledged ourselves
to protect your child from everything that her mother feared, and to
secure for her all that she hoped.

"My lord, we kept our oaths. He died, broken-hearted, under the terrible
burden which we took on ourselves that night. I lived, carrying it with
me, till my shoulders are bowed, and my hair white with old age.

"The next day, while _she_ lay dead, a fire broke out in the house where
we lived. Our rooms were high up; the flames and smoke mounted so
suddenly that it was impossible for us to escape by the stairs. The two
little girls had crept into a corner of the room, and sat crying there,
with the fire and smoke rolling toward them. I had secured the box, in
which were Lady Hope's jewels and papers, and swung it over my
shoulders, then snatched up your child."

Here the two girls, who stood, pale and trembling, by the window,
uttered a simultaneous cry.

"I remember! I remember!" they said, each to the other, then clung
together and listened.

The old woman scarcely heeded this interruption.

Lord Hope looked toward the window, so bewildered that he could neither
see nor hear anything distinctly.

Mrs. Yates went on:

"I called on Daniel's wife to bring the other child. Firemen and
citizens were climbing the ladders and leaping in at the windows. One
man sprang into the room and out again, while I waited for my turn. He
had something in his arms huddled up like a bundle--pushed me aside and
took my place on the ladder. Then Daniel's wife came to me, wringing her
hands and crying. She could not find the child.

"But I had the one most precious to me in my arms. The flames drove me
forward, and I let myself down on the ladder. Your child was safe. I
know now that the man who pushed me from the window saved little
Caroline Brown and brought her to you. She has since been known as your
daughter. I saw her in your arms on board the steamer. Last night she
was recognized as grand-daughter of Lady Carset."

"But the other--my own child?"

"I had no means of telling you the truth at the time, and, after that,
would not do it. The child, I knew, would be a safeguard to little
Clar