e. Where did you learn so much?"

"I think it comes to you when one has done so much for you," she
answered quietly.

"Did you always live in that western country town?" he asked, just to
make talk.

Lilian colored and hesitated. "When I was a baby mother went out to
Wisconsin to her brother's, I don't remember anything of that. Yes,
afterward we lived in Laconia until we came here; but, do you think she
can--mend?" and she approached the bed.

Dr. Kendricks made a slow movement in the negative. "She has very little
strength. Was she ill before she came here?"

"Long ago she had a fever, but I think now she has been weakly for a
year or more. I was so anxious to keep in school. Oh, I ought to have
helped more," and the tears stood in her eyes. "For we were poor."

She uttered the fact with a kind of prideful dignity. "She did
everything for me and I had planned when I began to earn money that we
would have a home--"

"Yes, you have been a good daughter," and all this while she might have
been living in a delightful manner in her father's house, loving and
beloved, the comfort of her mother! For she would have been a devoted
daughter in that beautiful home. He hardened his heart against the dying
woman, and walked quietly out of the room.

"The story must be true," he admitted to Mrs. Barrington. "But I cannot
tell what step to take first. Would you mind if I saw Mr. Ledwith? He
has been the Crawford lawyer and was the brother's executor. I am quite
mystified and perhaps not capable of judging."

"Why, I think that would be an excellent plan. Yes. He can tell better
what steps to take. But Lilian will not leave the poor woman. I am not
sure she believes the story. She does not count on any change but is
glad to stay here with me and fit herself for earning a living. She has
a very loyal nature."

Mrs. Boyd roused and ate her dinner, then Lilian read her to sleep
again. She begged not to be sent out to walk and Mrs. Barrington
yielded.

At five Mr. Ledwith called, full of interest in the strange story and
begged to see Mrs. Boyd, wondering if she would repeat it. Lilian was
summoned.

"Oh, it would seem cruel to disturb her," she cried with passionate
tenderness, "and she suffered so in telling it the other evening. It
cannot make much difference to me, since my own mother was killed, and
my father may have been dead before that. I shall always hold her in my
memory as my mother."

"But the woman who was