ve you, happy at last. Don't let all these other
claimants push me out of your heart; always keep one little
place for your loving, grateful

CLAIRE.

Madeline's eyes were moist when she lifted them from the perusal of
this letter.

"Bright, beautiful, brave Claire," she murmured; "who could help
loving her?"

Then her eyes fell again upon the letter, and she started:

"'You will become that and more to Doctor Vaughan,'" she read. "What
can she mean? Can it be possible that, after all, I have betrayed
myself to her?"

She re-read the letter from beginning to end, her face flushing and
paling.

"Oh!" she whispered softly, "she has read my heart, and we are playing
at cross purposes! What a queer rivalry," the girl actually laughed;
"a rivalry of renunciation. Does she yet know how he loves her, I
wonder?" Then, her face growing graver, "she won't be long in making
that discovery now."

She took up Clarence Vaughan's letter, almost dreading to break the
seal.

MY BRAVE LITTLE SISTER:

You perceive, I have commenced my tyranny. And instead of
being able to grant favors to my new sister, I am reduced to
the necessity of begging them at her hands. In a word, I
want to come to Bellair. Not to be a meddlesome adviser; I
am too firmly a convert to your method of procedure for
that. Besides, I should have to declare war upon Miss Keith
if I presumed thus far. But I do desire to further your
plans, and to this end would make a suggestion that has
occurred to me since hearing of your marvelous detective
work.

Believe me, I cannot express the admiration I feel for your
daring and tact. I have no longer the faintest scruple as to
trusting this issue, so important to all of us, in your
hands. And I am more than proud of such a sister.

May I come to Bellair, say on Monday next? I will stop at
the little station a few miles this side of the village, and
walk or drive over, and find my way to the cottage of your
old nurse, where you can meet me, unless you have a better
place to suggest. I shall anxiously await your answer, and
am your brother to command.

C. E. VAUGHAN.

Madeline's cheeks were flushed, her eyes shining.

"How they all trust me!" she ejaculated; "and they always shall. I
will never be false to thei