only to hear her say, 'Good-morning, Dr. Martin.' 'But I
will not see her now, unless she is seriously ill.' I felt that he was
right, Dr. Martin is always right."

I did not speak when Tardif paused, as if to hear what I had to say. I
heard him sigh as softly as a woman sighs.

"If you could only come back to my poor little house!" he said; "but
that is impossible. My poor mother died in the spring, and I am living
alone. It is desolate, but I am not unhappy. I have my boat and the sea,
where I am never solitary. But why should I talk of myself? We were
speaking of what you are to do."

"I don't know what to do," I said, despondently; "you see Tardif, I have
not a single friend I could go to in England. I shall have to stay here
in Ville-en-bois."

"No," he answered; "Dr. Martin has some plan for you, I know, though he
did not tell me what it is. He said you would have a home offered to
you, such as you would accept gladly. I think it is in Guernsey."

"With his mother, perhaps," I suggested.

"His mother, mam'zelle!" he repeated; "alas! no. His mother is dead; she
died only a few weeks after you left Sark."

I felt as if I had lost an old friend whom I had known for a long time,
though I had only seen her once. In my greatest difficulty I had thought
of making my way to her, and telling her all my history. I did not know
what other home could open for me, if she were dead.

"Dr. Dobree married a second wife only three months after," pursued
Tardif, "and Dr. Martin left Guernsey altogether, and went to London,
to be a partner with his friend, Dr. Senior."

"Dr. John Senior?" I said.

"Yes, mam'zelle," he answered.

"Why! I know him," I exclaimed; "I recollect his face well. He is
handsomer than Dr. Martin. But whom did Dr. Dobree marry?"

"I do not know whether he is handsomer than Dr. Martin," said Tardif, in
a grieved tone. "Who did Dr. Dobree marry? Oh! a foreigner. No Guernsey
lady would have married him so soon after Mrs. Dobree's death. She was a
great friend of Miss Julia Dobree. Her name was Daltrey."

"Kate Daltrey!" I ejaculated. My brain seemed to whirl with the
recollections, the associations, the rapid mingling and odd readjustment
of ideas forced upon me by Tardif's words. What would have become of me
if I had found my way to Guernsey, seeking Mrs. Dobree, and discovered
in her Kate Daltrey? I had not time to realize this before Tardif went
on in his narration.

"Dr. Martin was heart-brok