reckenridge, the most marvellous thing! I've discovered--or I
believe I have--what that remarkable likeness is which has so perplexed
me. Blood always tells, always crops out!"

"Exactly. Especially in cases like this. Having nothing else to do
I've tried whittling--with this result. Tie it up, Lu, and explain
yourself--if you can," he answered, whimsically holding out a finger
he had cut and that was slightly bleeding.

"Oh! you poor dear!"

"Yes. Am I not! Wait. Here's a bit of court-plaster. Forgot I had it or
wouldn't have troubled you. Now, talk ahead."

"Schuyler, a man like you shouldn't trifle with edged tools. You have no
gift for anything but--lawing. It wouldn't be any laughing matter if you
should develop blood-poison--"

"It certainly would not, and as I like to laugh I shan't do it. Now,
what is this marvellous thing you've discovered, please? I'm getting
tired of fog, no newspapers, and chess with a stranger; so welcome even
a woman's gossip with delight!"

She paid no heed to his chaffing but began:

"I believe I know who that Dorothy's parents were. I'm as positive as if
I'd been told; and I'm perfectly amazed at Mrs. Betty Calvert. Isn't it
wonderful?"

"Apparently--to you. Not yet to me. I've understood that two and two
makes four; but how your 'belief' and poor old Betty Calvert make
sensible connection I fail to comprehend. I await instruction."

"Stop jesting and you shall have it. Then tell me if I haven't given
you better food for thought than you'd find in to-day's paper--if you
could get it here at sea."

Thereupon, hitching her chair a little nearer to her brother's and
glancing about to see no stranger overheard, the lady began a low toned
conversation with him. This proved, as she had foretold, far more
entertaining than the day's news; and when it was over, when there was
nothing more to be said, he rose, pulled his traveling cap over his
eyes, thrust his hands into his capacious pockets and walked away "to
think it over." Adding, as he left:

"Well, if you're right everything is wrong. And if you're wrong
everything's right."

Over which eminent legal opinion Mrs. Hungerford smiled, reflecting:

"He's convinced. There's nobody I know so well versed in Maryland
genealogy as Schuyler Breckenridge. It's been his pastime so long he'll
be keen on this scent till he proves it false or true. And if it is
true--what a shame, what a shame! That horrid, lonely old woman to take
such