I choose exactly what I want?" asked Sylvia.

"Certainly you may," replied Dr. Severn.

"Then I'd like to hear the story of that little carved ivory locket
that's hanging on your watch-chain. It looks like a charm too."

A spasm of pain crossed the doctor's face at Sylvia's words, but he
recovered himself in a moment.

"That would not interest you, dear child," he said gravely. "It is not
a curiosity such as the other things I have shown you."

"It's a charm, though, isn't it?" asked Sylvia. "I've been noticing it
all the afternoon. It's so exactly like another I've seen."

"That could hardly be," said Dr. Severn. "This carving has no
duplicate."

"But I know one that's its own twin," persisted Sylvia. "It's the same
size and shape, and has the same carving on it, these little
three-cornered kind of leaves round the edge, and these marks like
queer letters in the middle. I couldn't possibly forget it."

"Where did you see it?" enquired Linda.

"It's the Chinese charm that they found tied round Mercy's neck when
she was brought to the hospital. She showed it me one Sunday evening,
and I held it in my hand and looked at it so carefully."

"Where did your friend get her charm?" asked Dr. Severn quickly.

"It was fastened round her neck when she was a baby. A Chinese woman
crawled with her to the hospital, because she was so wounded she was
dying. Not Mercy, I mean, but the poor woman. Mercy wasn't hurt at
all. They adopted her at the hospital, and then she was brought to
England, and came to Miss Kaye's, but nobody's ever found out yet who
she is. Isn't it just like a storybook?" said Sylvia, who loved to
bring forward the romantic side of her friend's history.

"How long ago is it since this happened?" enquired Dr. Severn with a
curious strained tone in his voice which neither of the children
noticed.

"About sixteen years. Mercy is nearly seventeen."

"Is that her true name?"

"No. Nobody knew her real name, so they called her Mercy Ingledew. She
had on Chinese clothes, and the nurse thought the locket must be a
Chinese charm too. She hadn't a single English thing that anyone could
tell her by. Wasn't it a pity?"

"A great pity, if her friends are alive to claim her."

"We don't know whether they are or not," said Sylvia. "I'm always
trying to find them, but Miss Kaye says I'm not to talk to Mercy about
it, because it's no use to keep raising false hopes, and we must all
be very kind to her, to make