ny station? My dear, I am happy to think
that a gentleman is your lover. Let him tell us, now--Lala Roy and
me--to our very faces, if he thinks we have, between us, made you a
lady."

Arnold stooped and kissed her hand.

"There is no more perfect lady," he said, "in all the land."

"Iris's father, Mr. Arbuthnot, was a gentleman of honorable and
ancient family, and I will tell you, presently, as soon as I find it
out myself, his real name. As for his coat-of-arms, he bore Quarterly,
first and fourth, two roses and a boar's head erect; second and third,
gules and fesse between--strange, now that I have forgotten what it
was between. Everybody calls himself a gentleman nowadays; even Mr.
Chalker, who is going to sell me up, I suppose; but everybody, if you
please, is not armiger. Iris, your father was armiger. I suppose I am
a gentleman on Sundays, when I go to church with Iris, and wear a
black coat. But your father, my dear, though he married my daughter,
was a gentleman by birth. And one who knows heraldry respects a
gentleman by birth." He laid his hand now on the handle of the safe,
as if the time were nearly come for opening it, but not quite. "He
sent me, with this last letter, a small parcel for you, my dear, not
to be opened until you reached the age of twenty-one. As for the
person who had succeeded to his inheritance, she was to be left in
peaceable possession for a reason which he gave--quite a romantic
story, which I will tell you presently--until you came of age. He was
very urgent on this point. If, however, any disaster of sickness or
misfortune fell upon me, I was to act in your interests at once,
without waiting for time. Children," the old man added solemnly, "by
the blessing of Heaven--I cannot take it as anything less--I have been
spared in health and fortune until this day. Now let me depart in
peace, for my trust is expired, and my child is safe, her inheritance
secured, with a younger and better protector." He placed the key in
the door of the safe. "I do not know, mind," he said, still hesitating
to take the final step; "I do not know the nature of the inheritance;
it may be little or maybe great. The letter does not inform me on this
point. I do not even know the name of the testator, my son-in-law's
father. Nor do I know the name of my daughter's husband. I do not even
know your true name, Iris, my child. But it is not Aglen."

"Then, have I been going under a false name all my life?"

"It