"You will know better soon," he replied, quietly. "Yes, you were that little child. Patty Brace took you to her arms, and honest Mark Brace treated you like his own." Her face flushed crimson, her lips curled with scorn, her eyes flashed light. "I look very much like a foundling, do I not? Earle Moray, take your absurd stories elsewhere." She held up one white hand. "That looks like the hand of a foundling, does it not? Shame on you for trying to humiliate me! It is a pure invention. I do not believe one word of it, and I never shall." "You have only heard the commencement," he replied, coolly. "Remember, I never used the word 'foundling' to you--you used it to yourself. It is not probable that I should do so _when I know whose daughter you are_." "Ah! Do you know? May I ask what honorable parentage you have assigned to me? This grows amusing. Remember, before you say another word, that I distinctly refuse to believe you." "You will change your mind," he said, quietly. "I have not the least doubt that I am here to tell you the simple truth, and to take you back to your father." The impulse was strong upon her to say that she could not go, but she refrained, thinking it quite as wise and politic to hear first to what she was to return. "You must not ask me how I know your history," said Earle, "but it suffices that I know it. Let me tell you also, it did not surprise me so very much. I always thought, myself, that you were, as you say, 'of a different kind.'" He saw the color creep slowly over her face and a new light dawn in her eyes. "You will, henceforward, occupy a very different position, Doris," he said, gravely; "your place will be henceforth among the nobility." "Ah! that's better," she said in a low voice. But he could see that she trembled with impatience. She had clasped her hands so tightly that the rings she wore made great dents in the tender flesh; still she would not betray her impatience. "Your father is a nobleman, a wealthy British peer--Earl Linleigh--and you are his only child." She grew white, even to the lips, and her breath came in quick gasps. "Earl of Linleigh?" she repeated. "Are you quite sure you are not mistaken, Earle?" "There is no mistake, Doris; your name and title is now Lady Doris Studleigh. Do you like it? Does it sound well?" She drew her breath with a deep, heavy sigh. "I cannot believe it, Earle," she said, "it seems quite impossible that it should be true. It is what I used to dream when a child, but I never thought the dream would be realized. I cannot believe it, Earle." It was significant enough that she refused to believe him when she fancied that he wished to lower her in the social scale; but she never expressed the slightest doubt of his truth now, nor did even the faintest doubt occur to her. After the first emotion of surprise had passed, she looked at him again. "My mother?" she said--"you have told me nothing about her. Who is she?"