.

"Was this on Dor--on _her_ neck or on mine, Uncle?" he asked.

"On the little girl's," said Mr. Reed. "In fact, she wore it until she
was a year old, and then her dear little throat grew to be so chubby,
Lydia fancied that the chain was too tight. The catch of the clasp
seemed to have rusted inside, and it would not open. So, rather than
break it, we severed the three chains here across the middle. I've
since--"

Donald, who was holding the clasp toward the light, cut short his
uncle's remark with the joyful exclamation:

"Why, see here! The under side has letters on it! D. R.--Dorothy Reed."

"Yes, yes," said Mr. Reed, impatiently, "but D stands for Delia too."

"But the R," insisted Donald; "D. R., Dorothy Reed--it's plain as day.
Oh!" he added quickly, in a changed tone, "that doesn't help us, after
all; for R would stand for Robertson as well as for Reed. But then, in
some way or other such a chain as this ought to help us. It's by no
means a common chain. I never saw one like it before."

"Nor I," said Mr. Reed.

By this time, Donald had taken up "the girl's" little garments again.
Comparing them with "Donald's" as well as he could, considering his
uncle's extreme care that the two sets should not get mixed, he said,
with a boy's helplessness in such matters: "They're about alike. I do
not see any difference between them, except in length. Ho-ho! these
little flannel sacques are of a different color; mine is blue and hers
is pink."

"I know that," his uncle returned, despondingly. "For a long time I
hoped that this difference would lead to some discovery, but nothing
came of it. Take care! don't lay it down; give it to me" (holding out
his hand for the pink sacque, and very carefully folding it up with "the
girl's" things).

"How strange! And you wrote immediately, you say, and sent somebody
right over to Europe to find out everything?"

"Not only sent my confidential clerk, Henry Wakeley, over at once,"
replied Mr. Reed, "but, when he returned without being able to give any
satisfaction, I went myself. I was over there two months--as long as I
could just then be away from my affairs and from you two babies. Liddy
was faithfulness itself and needed no oversight, even had a rough
bachelor like me been capable of giving it; but I felt better to be at
home, where I could see how you were getting along. As Liddy and Jack
and everybody else always spoke of you as 'the twins,' my hope that you
were indee