ather and
mother's real daughter. They have been everything to me, and I could not
love them a bit less if I did know that I was their adopted child
instead of being their real one."

"No, certainly not," Rupert agreed; "but then, you see, Madge, Edgar may
have thought that he had been adopted, not as childless people sometimes
adopt children, but because they could not help adopting him."

"But that wasn't his fault, Rupert."

"No, that wasn't his fault; but I can understand him feeling that it
made a great difference. Oh, I wonder what he is doing! I expect he went
up to London by the night mail; he would have caught that at Glo'ster.
But what could he do when he got there?"

"Oh, I am not thinking about that!" the girl said. "I am thinking what
he must feel when he knows father and mother are not his father and
mother, and that you and I are not his brother and sister. It must be
awful, Rupert."

"It must be awful," Rupert agreed. "I do not know what I should have
done had it been me, and you know it might just as well have been me as
Edgar. I wish it were five o'clock!"

The afternoon seemed indeed endless to them all. For the last half-hour
Rupert and Madge sat at the window gazing across the park for the first
sight of the horseman, and at last they exclaimed simultaneously, "There
he comes!"

Captain Clinton, who had been sitting by the sofa holding his wife's
hand in his, rose. "I will go and meet him," he said. "Rupert and Madge,
you had better go into the library until I call you. I must read it over
first to your mother."

Without a word they went into the other room, and from the window
watched Captain Clinton as he walked quickly down the drive to meet the
groom. They saw him take the letter, and, as the man rode on towards the
stables, open it and stand reading it.

"It is very bad," Madge said almost in a whisper, as she saw her father
drop his hand despondently to his side, and then with bent head walk
towards the house. Not another word was spoken until Captain Clinton
opened the door and called them. Madge had been crying silently, and the
tears were running fast down Rupert's cheeks as he sat looking out on to
the park.

"You had better read the letter here," Captain Clinton said. "I may tell
you what I did not mention before, that there was a strong opinion
among many at the time, that the confusion between the children arose,
not from accident, as was said, but was deliberate, and this