With his lips sealed by the positive mandate of the lovely spectre, Mr. Hamlin resigned himself again to weakness and sleep. When he awoke, Olly was sitting by his bedside; the dusky figure of Pete, spectacled and reading a good book, was dimly outlined against the window--but that was all. The vision--if vision it was--had fled. "Olly," said Mr. Hamlin, faintly. "Yes!" said Olly, opening her eyes in expectant sympathy. "How long have I been dr--I mean how long has this--spell lasted?" "Three days," said Olly. "The ---- you say!" (A humane and possibly weak consideration for Mr. Hamlin in his new weakness and suffering restricts me to a mere outline of his extravagance of speech.) "But you're better now," supplemented Olly. Mr. Hamlin began to wonder faintly if his painful experience of the last twenty-four hours were a part of his convalsecence. He was silent for a few moments and then suddenly turned his face toward Olly. "Didn't you say something about--about--your sister, the other day?" "Yes--she's got back," said Olly, curtly. "Here?" "Here." "Well?" said Mr. Hamlin, a little impatiently. "Well," returned Olly, with a slight toss of her curls, "she's got back and I reckon it's about time she did." Strange to say, Olly's evident lack of appreciation of her sister seemed to please Mr. Hamlin--possibly because it agreed with his own idea of Grace's superiority and his inability to recognise or accept her as the sister of Gabriel. "Where has she been all this while?" asked Jack, rolling his large hollow eyes over Olly. "Goodness knows! Says she's bin livin' in some fammerly down in the South--Spanish, I reckon; thet's whar she gits those airs and graces." "Has she ever been here--in this room?" asked Mr. Hamlin. "Of course she has," said Olly. "When I left you to go with Gabe to see his wife at Wingdam, she volunteered to take my place. Thet waz while you waz flighty, Mr. Hamlin. But I reckon she admired to stay here on account of seein' her bo!" "Her what?" asked Mr. Hamlin, feeling the blood fast rushing to his colourless face. "Her bo," repeated Olly, "thet thar Ashley, or Poinsett--or whatever he calls hisself now!"