rtled, her slender hands
fluttering agitatedly as the man's heavy voice forced itself upon her
ears and the meaning of what he said entered her mind.

"This child!" ejaculated the younger sister, Miss Eliza, doubtfully,
adjusting her glasses and leaning over to take a closer look at the
proposed addition to the family.

"Hm!"

This comment came from Mr. Clark.

A dull flush crept over Hapgood's face.

"You don't seem very cordial," he remarked.

"O," the elder Miss Clark, Miss Maria, began apologetically, but she was
interrupted by her brother.

"You have the proofs, I suppose."

Hapgood could not restrain a glare of dislike, but he drew a bundle of
papers from his pocket.

"I knew you'd ask for 'em."

"Naturally," answered the calm voice of Mr. Clark.

"So I copied these from the records and swore to 'em before a notary."

"You copied them yourself?"

"Yes, sir, with my own hand," and the man held up that member as if to
call it as a witness to his truth.

"I should have preferred to have had the copying done by a typist
accredited by the county clerk," said Mr. Clark coolly.

Hapgood flushed angrily.

"If you don't believe me--" he began, but Mr. Clark held up a warning
finger.

"It's always wise to follow the custom in such cases," he observed.

Hapgood, finding himself in the wrong, leaned over Mr. Clark's shoulder
and pointed eagerly to the notary's signature.

"Henry Holden--that's the notary--that's him," he repeated several times
insistently.

Mr. Clark nodded and read the papers slowly aloud so that his sisters
might hear their contents. They recited the marriage at Uniontown, the
county seat of Fayette County, Pennsylvania, on the fifteenth day of
December, 1860, of Emily Leonard to Edward Smith.

"There you are," insisted Hapgood loudly. "That's her; that's the
grandmother of Mary here."

"You're sure of that?"

"Here's the record of the birth of Jabez, son of Edward and Emily
(Leonard) Smith two years later, and the record of his marriage to my
sister and the record of the birth of Mary. After I got the marriage of
this Emily straightened out the rest was easy. We had it right in the
family."

The two sisters gazed at each other aghast. The man was so assertive and
coarse, and the child was so far from gentle that it seemed impossible
that she could be of their own blood. Still, they remembered that
surroundings have greater influence than inheritance, so they held
their pea