, that he would be sure to be true
to her.

Alas! what a slender thread of circumstances in this world changes our
fate for weal or for woe!

Ever since the accident had happened, and the doctors had all pronounced
the terrible decree that poor Dorothy would go through life totally
blind, the poor old housekeeper had been maturing a plan in her head
which she thought would be a world of comfort to the poor girl.

Mrs. Kemp had a niece whom she had kept at boarding-school all the
girl's life, for she was an orphan, and she said to herself: "How grand
a plan it would be to bring the girl to Gray Gables to be a companion to
Dorothy until she marries!"

Her niece was a bright, gay creature, and would be just the one to cheer
Dorothy up.

Mrs. Kemp concluded to put this plan into execution at once, as there
was no one to say nay in regard to it, and she wrote to her niece to
come on without delay, little dreaming that this one action would prove
the curse of three lives--aye, the bitterest curse that ever wrung a
human heart, and that heart poor, hapless Dorothy's.

Ah, me! how often in this world that which we mean for the greatest good
turns out the source of the cruelest woe.

Dorothy heard of the plan, and agreed to it eagerly.

"Oh, thank you--thank you for the happy thought, Mrs. Kemp!" she cried;
"for I am lonely--so pitifully lonely. Yes, I would give the world for a
girl of my own age to be a companion to me until--until I marry Harry."

Kendal received the intelligence with a look of interest in his eyes.

"When does your niece come, Mrs. Kemp?" he inquired.

"I expect Iris to come to-morrow," she replied. And on the following
afternoon Iris Vincent arrived.

The carriage met her at the depot. Harry went for her himself. Dorothy
stood at the window, with Katy, her faithful little maid, awaiting Iris'
coming with the greatest impatience.

At last the carriage stopped before the arched gateway, and she heard
the sound of voices, then a peal of light, girlish laughter ringing out
above all the rest.

"Has she come?" whispered Dorothy.

"Yes, miss," murmured the little maid, in a low voice.

"What is she like?" questioned Dorothy, eagerly.

Faithful little Katy looked out of the window, then at Dorothy, a sudden
lump rising in her throat and a great fear at her heart.

She dared not tell her that the strange young girl was as beautiful as a
poet's dream--slim as a young willow, dressed in the heig