“My father,—his child,—who then was my mother?” and as she said it her face flushed with shame as she thought what _she_ must be if this tale were true and Colonel Schuyler her sire. She never dreamed of associating Edith with the matter in any way. Only Colonel Schuyler had an interest in her, and that of such a nature that the knowledge of it brought far more pain than pleasure to one as pure and good as she. If Colonel Schuyler were her father, then the man whom she vaguely remembered in the home near London could have been nothing to her, and for this she was not especially sorry. But to lose the gentlewoman whom she had been taught to think her mother, was terrible, and Gertie rebelled against it. She would cling to the memory of _that_ woman, even if she had sinned, as the story of her birth would imply. And this was why Mary Rogers had always been so reticent with regard to her antecedents, why she had spoken with so much certainty of her mother as a lady, and said so little of her father. Possibly Mary had not known _who_ her father was, and possibly the man whom she remembered was only the brother or father of the pale woman who died, and that would account for his dislike of her. These and similar fancies flitted rapidly through Gertie’s mind, until she settled it beyond a doubt that the man she called father, and who she thought was buried in Italy, had been her mother’s near relation, and not her father, that no marriage rite could have hallowed her birth, and as she thought it her face and neck and hands were crimson, and she longed for some place in which to hide her dishonored head. Then, swift as lightning, another thought flashed into her mind, cutting like a knife and making her cringe with pain. If she was Colonel Schuyler’s daughter, even in an unlawful way, then Godfrey was her brother, and alas, she did not want him that. She could never be his wife, she knew; but it was sweet to know he loved her as he would never love another, and she could _not_ be his sister. “Oh, Godfrey, Godfrey!” she moaned; “this is the hardest part of all. I can forgive my mother, feeling sure that she was more sinned against than sinning, and I may in time forgive your father and mine; but I do not want you for my brother. Godfrey, Godfrey, I never loved you before as I do now, when this has risen up to separate us forever.” Then she remembered the telegram, and starting up exclaimed: “If I am his sister I may surely go to him. I have a right, and no one can gainsay it.” She was in Mrs. Tiffe’s room in an instant, and greatly astonished that good woman by declaring her intention of going herself to New York to take care of Godfrey. “You, _you_ go to nurse a young man! Are you crazy, child?” Mrs. Tiffe exclaimed.