aling an exact facsimile of the former portrait. Dr. Severn placed
the pair side by side again upon the table and turned to Mercy.

"You did not know its secret?" he asked. "How could you when there was
no one to show you the tiny catch? You have seen that the pictures in
the two lockets are of the same person? In mine it is of my beloved
wife, and in yours it is the portrait of your mother. Yes, Mercy, you
are indeed my daughter, given back, as it seems to me, from the dead,
and after all these years of our separation I claim you thus through
the memory of one by whom we were both held equally dear!"

"So you're really Dr. Severn's own daughter! It's almost too nice to
believe!" exclaimed Sylvia a few minutes later, when Mercy, with an
April face, half-smiles and half-tears, kissed her and thanked her for
her share in bringing about her new-found happiness.

"It is true nevertheless," replied Dr. Severn. "The locket has removed
every shadow of doubt. There is still, however, a great deal to be
explained, and with Miss Kaye's permission I will relate both how I
lost my child and why I had apparently made no effort to recover her.
It is a long story, but for a full understanding of the facts of the
case it is necessary for me to begin at the beginning.

"It is now more than twenty years ago that, having obtained my degree
as a doctor of medicine, and held appointments at various hospitals in
London and the provinces, I determined to devote myself to the mission
field, and sailed for China. I was appointed head of the medical
mission at Tsi-chin in the canton of Szu-chwan, and on arrival there I
bade goodbye to Western civilization. In those days the people of
China were even more ignorant and fanatical than they are now. The
prejudice against Europeans was intense, and for a long time our best
efforts seemed thrown away. I should have been very disappointed and
down-hearted if it had not been for the cheery hopeful courage of my
wife, who had given up an easy life in England to help the cause, and
whose work among the Chinese women was the beginning of the ultimate
success which attended our mission.

"The very first to become a Christian was a woman named Lao-ya, and
through her we found access to numerous houses, the doors of which had
been formerly closed against us. Our small church began to grow. Many
who came to the hospital as patients would listen to our story of the
Great Physician, and tell it again in thei