d. She touched the bell. She was swept off her feet. She
had encountered a will stronger than any which she had ever known, a
will which might have been strengthened by the tininess of the body
in which its wings were bent, but always beating for flight. And she
had encountered this will at a moment when her own was weakened and
her mind dazed by the unprecedented circumstances in which she was
placed.

Chapter XXXVIII

Three days later, when they were on the outward-bound steamer, Miss
Rosa Blair crossed the corridor between her state-room, which she
occupied with her maid, to Maria's, and stood a moment looking down
at the girl lying in her berth. Maria was in that state of liability
to illness which keeps one in a berth, although she was not actually
sea-sick.

"My dear," said Miss Blair. "I think I may as well tell you now. In
the night's paper before we left, I saw the death-notice of a certain
Maria Edgham, of Edgham, New Jersey. There were some particulars
which served to establish the fact of the death. You will not be
interested in the particulars?"

Maria turned her pale face towards the port-hole, against which
dashed a green wave topped with foam. "No," said she.

"I thought you would not," said Miss Blair. "Then there is something
else."

Maria waited quiescent.

"Your name is on the ship's list of passengers as Miss Elizabeth
Blair. You are my adopted daughter."

Maria started.

"Adelaide does not remember that you were called Miss Ackley," said
Miss Blair. "She will never remember that you were anything except my
adopted daughter. She is a model maid. As for the others, Louise is a
model, too, and so is the coachman. The footman is discharged. When
we return, nobody in my house will have ever known you except as
Elizabeth Blair." Miss Blair went out of the state-room walking
easily with the motion of the ship. She was a good sailor.

The next afternoon Maria was able to sit out on deck. She leaned back
in her steamer-chair, and wept silently. Miss Blair stood at a little
distance near the rail, talking to an elderly gentleman whom she had
met years ago. "She is my adopted daughter Elizabeth," said Miss
Blair. "She has been a little ill, but she is much better. She is
feeling sad over the death of a friend, poor child."

It was a year before Maria and Miss Blair returned to the United
States. Maria looked older, although she was fully as handsome as she
had ever been. Her features had