name could have been chosen. It was mercy that saved
her life, mercy that preserved her during all the years we were apart,
mercy that brought about our marvellous meeting, and it is mercy that
has given her back to me at last."

CHAPTER XIX

The Prize Giving

All the school was delighted at Mercy's good fortune, but no one more
so than Sylvia. To feel that Dr. Severn's discovery was indirectly due
to herself was an unbounded satisfaction.

"I always wanted so much to discover Mercy's friends," she said to
Linda. "And isn't it strange that when I believed I'd found her mother
it was just a silly mistake, and when I'd really found her father, I
didn't suspect it in the least. I never dreamt of Dr. Severn being a
relation, even when I saw his locket was the same as Mercy's. You see,
Mercy said it was a Chinese charm, so I thought perhaps they were
quite common, like the blue-bead tassel he'd been showing you, and
anybody who'd been in China might have one. Suppose I hadn't come to
stay with you at Whitsuntide, or we hadn't gone to tea that afternoon,
you wouldn't have noticed that locket, because Mercy hadn't shown hers
to you; and if you'd told Dr. Severn about her being found, he'd never
have guessed it was his own Mary. I don't think anything you could
have offered me in the whole world would have made me gladder than
this!"

There was only one flaw in Sylvia's happiness. Mercy, who was now
seventeen, was to leave Heathercliffe House to be mistress of Dale
Side. Both Miss Kaye and Dr. Severn thought her right place was with
her father, and that her schooldays might fitly come to a close.

"I couldn't part from her again," said the doctor, "not even to send
her to so short a distance as Aberglyn. We've still to learn to know
each other, and the more we're in each other's company the better. I
can arrange for visiting masters to give her lessons in painting and
music, but she's such a tall girl, I feel she's almost a woman, and
will soon begin to take care of me, instead of allowing me to take
care of her."

To Sylvia, Mercy's absence would leave a great blank, but she was
consoled when Dr. Severn promised that she should be their first
visitor, and that he would ask her mother to allow her to spend part
of the August holidays with them at Craigwen, where Linda and her
brothers would be able to join them constantly for walks and
excursions. There was little more of the summer term left for anyone
at He