t a splendid treasure! I never dreamed of aught like
this! But oh, it seems to spoil it all not to have Cuthbert! It was
he who found it, when nearly all the rest of the world derided the
hope of such a thing. Oh, why is he not here to be with us today?"

"Why not, indeed?"

A door at the far end of the room was thrown suddenly open. Lady
Humbert, who had withdrawn herself for a few moments, came forward
smiling and beaming, and behind her--who?

Petronella, who was standing at Philip's side, not far away,
uttered a quick, sharp cry of rapture, and flung herself into
Cuthbert's arms.

"Cuthbert!" cried Kate, with a forward bound; and the next minute
Cuthbert was surrounded by a crowd of eager questioners, and so
belaboured with greetings, inquiries, and congratulations that he
himself could not get in a word, but stood looking smilingly from
one to another till his eyes met the eager, wistful glance of a
pair of limpid blue ones, and with a quick cry of "Cherry!" he
shook off the detaining clasp of all other hands, and went straight
across to the spot where she stood blushing, quivering, and hardly
able to believe the evidences of her senses.

All made way for him smilingly, for the secret of his love was an
open one now, and Cherry had endeared herself to all the family by
her gentleness and pretty, clinging ways.

"Sweetheart," he said, "I come to claim thee at last, and to claim
thee with thy good father's ready consent and promised blessing.
Cherry, it is to Jacob's devotion and generosity that we owe this
happiness, for he it was who saved my life, and might well have
risked his own to do so. But he thought not of that; he only
thought how he might serve me, and redeem a promise he had made to
thee. And now he has his reward. He was wedded to thy sister a
short week back, being unwilling to wait longer. And he bids me
give thee a brother's love and greeting, hoping that thou wilt find
a place for a brother in thine heart, and wilt give to him a
sister's love."

"Oh, that indeed I will! Good Jacob! kind Jacob!" cried Cherry,
who, bewildered by this rush of happiness, scarce knew what she
said or did; but it was enough that she had Cuthbert back again
safe and sound.

To her the voices questioning and exclaiming and eagerly displaying
to her lover the treasure he had never been able to examine and had
never seen massed together, sounded like the murmur of troubled
waters. She stood with Cuthbert's hand in