th white face and
wild eyes, stared at them from the open doorway.

No, not at them; only at one of them--the fair-haired girl, almost a
woman, who sat at the head of the table, on Mr. Elmer's right hand, and
on whose face the light shone full and strong.

Then a cry rang through the hall, a cry almost of agony, and it was
"Margaret! Margaret! my wife Margaret! Am I dreaming, or can the dead
come to life?"

As the startled guests looked towards the door Mr. March entered the
room, and without noticing any one else, walked straight to where Edna
May was sitting. She, frightened at his appearance and fixed gaze,
clung to Mr. Elmer's arm, and Captain May half rose from his chair with
a confused idea that the girl, whom he loved as his own daughter, was
in danger.

"Who is she, Elmer? where did she come from?" exclaimed Mr. March. "She
is the living image of my dead wife; only younger, much younger, and
more beautiful than she whom I drove from her home," he added, with a
groan.

Mr. Elmer had noticed the strange resemblance between Frank March and
Edna May, and had determined to speak to his wife about it that night.
Now it all flashed across him as clear as sunlight; but before he could
speak, Ruth sprang to his side, and taking her friend's hand in hers,
cried,

"Don't you see, father, she is his own daughter, the baby he thought
was drowned in the Savannah River so many years ago? Captain May saved
her, and now he has brought her back to her father and brother. Frank,
Edna is your own sister."

Mr. March tried to take Edna into his arms, but she slipped away from
him and ran to Captain May, saying, "This is my father, the only one I
have ever known. As he has loved and cared for me, so do I love him. I
will never, never leave him!" and she burst into tears.

After soothing and quieting her, Captain May said, "Mr. March, I
suspected this long ago. Mark and Ruth told me of the resemblance
between Edna and your son on our way North together last spring, and I
made them promise not to mention it to her. I hoped it would prove to
be only a fancied resemblance; but, as a Christian man, I could not
keep father and daughter separated, if indeed they were father and
daughter. So I brought her here to meet you face to face; and from what
I have just seen I am inclined to think you are her own father, but you
must prove it to me. Prove the fact beyond a doubt, and I will yield to
you an undivided half interest in this d