ne came back to her face, laughed in the depths of her eyes
and brought a dimple to either cheek.

"I suppose I am a little jealous of Terry," she said. "You see he is
very like you, Shawn. And I am fond of Eileen, really. Only, I
suppose all mothers are critical of the girls their sons fall in love
with, especially if it is an only son. It is odd how it has come
suddenly to Terry that Eileen is a pretty girl. Of course he has only
seen her in her vacations. Sit down now, Shawn, and I will read you
Aunt Grace's letter."

He sat down obediently in the revolving chair in front of his desk and
she came and stood by him. Her voice was a little disturbed as she
read the letter.

"MY DEAR MARY,--You will be surprised to hear that I am coming back
again to Inch. The years bring their dust, as some poet says: they
certainly soften griefs and asperities. When I left Inch I was
broken-hearted for my one boy. It was a poisoning of the grief at that
time to know that you and Shawn O'Gara were going to be married. I
felt that you had forgotten my beautiful boy, that his friend had
forgotten him: but that I acknowledge now to have been a morbid and
unreasonable way of looking at things. My boy never thought of any
girl but you, yet I could not expect you to go unmarried for his sake:
indeed I would not have wished it. You and Shawn must forgive that old
unreasonable bitterness of mine, the bitterness of a mother distraught
by grief.

"I have left you alone all these years, but I have not been without
knowledge of you. I know that your son is called Terence after my son.
I appreciate that fact, which indicates to me that you keep him in
loving remembrance.

"After all these years I am suddenly weary for home, so weary that I
wonder now how I could have kept away so long. Whether I shall end my
days at Inch depends on Stella. My wild experiment of adopting this
child, as some of my friends thought it at the time, has turned out
very well. Stella is a dear child. I send you a photograph which
hardly does her justice. As she is entirely mine she goes by my name,
although her father was French. I should like to say to you that
though I shall provide for Stella it will not be to your detriment. I
have a sense of justice towards my kin.

"I trust to you to receive Stella and me in a manner which will prove
that you have blotted out any memories of the past that are otherwise
than happy.

"Your affectionate c