Chris
whispered, staring blindly ahead of him. "And what--what became of the
other child--Theodore's child?"

"Louison kept her until she was five," the old lady explained, eagerly,
"and then she wanted to marry again, and she had to go live in a wild
sort of place, in Canada. She didn't want to take the little girl there,
and she remembered Kate Sheridan, who had had the other baby, and who
had been so good to it--so devoted to it! And she went there, Chris, and
left her baby there."

"And that baby----" Chris began.

"Yes. That was Norma!" Mrs. Melrose said. "It is all Norma's, the whole
thing--and you must take care that she gets it, Chris. I--even my will,
dear, only gives Norma the Melrose Building and some bonds. But those
are for Leslie, now, all the rest--the whole estate goes to Theodore's
child--Norma. You must forgive me if I did it all wrong. I meant it for
the best. I never knew that you were living, dear, until Kate brought
you here three years ago. She didn't dare do it until your mother died;
she had promised she would never tell a living soul. But Louison
softened toward the end, and wrote Kate she must use her own judgment.
And Kate--Kate--knows all about it----"

The voice thickened. The old lady raised herself in bed.

"That man--behind you, Chris!" she gasped. Chris put her down again,
Norma flew for help. The muttering and the heavy breathing recommenced.
Nurses and doctors ran back, Regina came to kneel at the foot of the
bed.

Another slight stroke, they said later, when they were all about the
fire in the next room again. Norma was white, her eyes glittering, her
bitten lips scarlet in her colourless face. Chris looked stunned.

But he found time for just one aside, as the endless night wore on.
Annie had arrived, superbly horrified and stricken, and Acton was there.
Mrs. Melrose was still breathing. The sickly light of a winter morning
was tugging at the shutters.

"Norma," Chris said, "do you realize what a tremendous thing has
happened to you? Do you realize who you are? You are a rich woman now,
my dear!"

"But do you believe it?" she asked, in a low tone.

"I know it is true! It explains everything," he answered. "It will be a
cruel blow to Leslie--poor child, and Annie, too. Alice, I think, need
never know. But Norma--even though this doesn't seem the time or the
place, let me be the first to congratulate you on your new position--my
old friend Theodore's daughter, and the la