standing at last."

"My brother--we all owe you a debt we can never repay," Kate said
gravely; "and Agnes here pronounces you an uncanonized saint."

"So I am. The world will do justice to my stupendous merits by-and-by.
You have been very much surprised by Agnes' story, Miss Danton?"

"Very much. We are going in to tell papa. You will come with us,
Doctor?"

"If Mrs. Agnes does not make me blush by her laudations. Draw it mild,
Agnes, won't you. You have no idea how modest I am."

He opened the front door and entered the hall as he spoke, followed by
the two girls. The drawing-room door was ajar, but Eeny and her teacher
were the only occupants of that palatial chamber.

"Try the dining-room," suggested Kate; "it is near dinner-hour; we will
find some one there."

Doctor Frank ran down-stairs, three steps at a time, followed more
decorously by his companions. Grace seated near the table, reading by
the light of a tall lamp, was the only occupant. She lifted her eyes in
astonishment at her brother's boisterous entrance.

"Where is papa?" Kate asked.

"Upstairs in the sick-room."

"Then wait here, Doctor; wait here, Agnes! I will go for him."

She ran lightly upstairs, and entered the sick man's bedroom. The shaded
lamp lit it dimly, and showed her her father sitting by the bedside
talking to his son. The invalid was better this evening--very, very
weak, but no longer delirious.

"You are better, Harry dear, are you not?" his sister asked, stooping to
kiss him; "and you can spare papa for half an hour? Can't you, Harry?"

A faint smile was his answer. He was too feeble to speak. Miss Danton
summoned Ogden from one of the outer rooms, left him in charge, and bore
her father off.

"What has happened, my dear?" the Captain asked. "There is a whole
volume of news in your face."

Kate clasped her hands around his arm, and looked up in his face with
her great earnest eyes.

"The most wonderful thing, papa! Just like a play or a novel! Who do you
think is here?"

"Who? Not Rose come back, surely?"

"Rose? Oh, no!" Kate answered, with wonderful quietness. "You never
could guess. Harry's wife!"

"What!"

"Papa! Poor Harry was dreadfully mistaken. She was innocent all the
time. Doctor Frank knows all about it, and saved the life of the man
Harry shot. It is Agnes Darling, papa. Isn't it the strangest thing you
ever heard of?"

They were at the dining-room door by this time--Captain Danton in a
state of