r be able to show
him all the things we wanted to show him, and to introduce him to all
of you here, as we always thought we should.' Miss Betty's voice began
to shake a little for the first time, and Pete and Nancy waited in
respectful silence. After a minute she went on:

'But Angel says we must try to be very proud to think of him dying so
bravely, for she says that women all over England are giving up so
much, that we ought to be glad to think that we have given something
too. And now I am coming to the part that is the most surprising.
Only think--our brother was married, married out there eight years ago,
and he never told us! I suppose he wanted to give us a beautiful
surprise when he brought us a new sister home.'

She waited for somebody to say something. Peter's face did not look as
if he thought the surprise a very beautiful one.

'Beg your pardon, Miss Betty,' he said doubtfully, 'but Mr. Bernard's
lady, she'd--she'd be black, I suppose?'

'Black!' exclaimed Betty in horror. 'Oh, dear me, no, Peter! Of
course she wouldn't be black. There are English people in the West
Indies or my brother wouldn't have been there, and it was an English
lady he married; but, poor lady, she died when she'd only been our
sister not quite a year. I suppose that was why Bernard never told us
afterwards, because of not wanting us to know what we'd missed. It was
very, very brave and very unselfish of him, of course, but Angel and I
wish he had, because then we could have written and said how sorry we
were, and perhaps comforted him a little. And now I'm coming to the
most surprising thing of all. My brother had a little boy, and he is
seven years old now, and he is in England and he will be here
to-night.' Miss Betty hurried out these last pieces of news one on the
top of the other, and then stopped and looked at her hearers, who
certainly seemed surprised enough to satisfy her.

'Poor little gentleman!' said kind-hearted Peter, ''tis a sad coming to
England for him, for sure, and him an orphan and alone in the world, as
one may say.'

'No, Peter, one mayn't say anything of the kind,' said Miss Betty,
pulling herself up and looking as dignified as she possibly could. 'Of
course, he's an orphan, poor dear little boy! but he can't be alone in
the world at all when he's got two aunts, and his aunt Angelica and I
will take good care he never feels like an orphan, the darling.'

Nancy's eyes opened their very wide