t remember
ever to have seen, she is my mother?"

"She _is_ your mother. James Helstone was _my_ husband. I say you are
_mine_. I have proved it. I thought perhaps you were all his, which
would have been a cruel dispensation for me. I find it is _not_ so. God
permitted me to be the parent of my child's mind. It belongs to me; it
is my property--my _right_. These features are James's own. He had a
fine face when he was young, and not altered by error. Papa, my darling,
gave you your blue eyes and soft brown hair; he gave you the oval of
your face and the regularity of your lineaments--the outside _he_
conferred; but the heart and the brain are _mine_. The germs are from
_me_, and they are improved, they are developed to excellence. I esteem
and approve my child as highly as I do most fondly love her."

"Is what I hear true? Is it no dream?"

"I wish it were as true that the substance and colour of health were
restored to your cheek."

"My own mother! is she one I can be so fond of as I can of you? People
generally did not like her--so I have been given to understand."

"They told you that? Well, your mother now tells you that, not having
the gift to please people generally, for their approbation she does not
care. Her thoughts are centred in her child. Does that child welcome or
reject her?"

"But if you _are_ my mother, the world is all changed to me. Surely I
can live. I should like to recover----"

"You _must_ recover. You drew life and strength from my breast when you
were a tiny, fair infant, over whose blue eyes I used to weep, fearing I
beheld in your very beauty the sign of qualities that had entered my
heart like iron, and pierced through my soul like a sword. Daughter! we
have been long parted; I return now to cherish you again."

She held her to her bosom; she cradled her in her arms; she rocked her
softly, as if lulling a young child to sleep.

"My mother--my own mother!"

The offspring nestled to the parent; that parent, feeling the endearment
and hearing the appeal, gathered her closer still. She covered her with
noiseless kisses; she murmured love over her, like a cushat fostering
its young.

There was silence in the room for a long while.

* * * * *

"Does my uncle know?"

"Your uncle knows. I told him when I first came to stay with you here."

"Did you recognize me when we first met at Fieldhead?"

"How could it be otherwise? Mr. and Miss Helstone being