oel. Then there was a pause. Mr. Ellsworthy was again heard
to clear his throat, and no one seemed quite to know what to do next.
Suddenly Hannah Martin broke the spell--

"Goodness gracious me!" she said, "how long are the darling young
ladies to be kept in suspense? Miss Primrose, why, you have got a
brother, and there he stands. Mr. Arthur, come and kiss your sisters,
my dear. Oh, my darling, darling girls, it's perfectly, perfectly
true; he's the boy your mother broke her heart about long ago."

The confusion and agitation which followed can scarcely be
described--the joy of the sisters can scarcely be painted. Daisy took
this wonderful and important discovery more coolly and calmly than the
others.

"It doesn't make a bit of difference in my love to him," she said,
"for I always loved him as if he were my brother."

"And now, Primrose," said Arthur, "you are mistress of this house, and
please remember that visitors are coming here presently, and that you
are to entertain them."

"Are we always to live with you, Arthur?" asked Jasmine. "It seems
better than a dream. Oh, Arthur," she continued, not waiting for her
brother's reply, "don't you remember how we made friends the very
first moment we met? we must have always known, deep down in our
hearts, that we were brother and sister."

"And this is to be our new Palace Beautiful," said Daisy, "and Poppy
is to live here too. Oh, Primrose, do you not feel almost too happy?"

"I've given up my independence," said Primrose, "and yet I never felt
more happy or more thankful."

The party that evening was a success. The astonishment of the good
ladies from Penelope Mansion when they heard the wonderful news passed
all bounds. Mrs. Dredge sat plump down on a chair, placed her fat
hands on her lap, and fairly cried.

"Oh, if only my poor dear husband had lived to see this beautiful
day," she said. "Young man, I have liked you from the first; you're
the kind of young man whom my good husband would have rejoiced to be
papa to."

Miss Slowcum sighed most deeply when she heard the news. "It's a
touching romance," she said, "quite worthy of the olden times. I could
imagine Mr. Noel--Mr. Mainwaring, I suppose we must call him now--as
belonging to the old knights of chivalry. Yes, I am a person of
discernment, and I long ago saw that the dear girls belonged to the
upper ten."

"It's an ill wind that blows nobody good," said Mrs. Mortlock. "In
this case, ladies and gent