Nancy had to bite her lips to strangle the words of confession that sprang to them. Aunt Sabrina went on: "I cannot bring back the years or atone to my brother for the wrong I did to him. I do not know how I can make up to your own father. Perhaps, if you ask him to, he will forgive me, some day. But I shall, as soon as I can see my lawyers in North Hero, make a new will, leaving Happy House and my share of my father's fortune to you----" "Good gracious----" thought Nancy; "she thinks Anne's father is still living!" In dismay Nancy sprang to her feet. But Miss Sabrina paid no heed to her agitation. She rose and went to the table and opened a leather-bound book that lay there. "I have brought down some papers and letters that belonged to your grandfather--when he was a young man. Here is a picture of him. Come and see it, my dear." Unwillingly Nancy crossed to the table. Miss Sabrina reverently placed the faded picture in her hand. "My only brother," she whispered, brokenly. "Your grandfather." "No, _Anne's_ grandfather," Nancy almost screamed. She looked at the picture with intent interest. It portrayed a strikingly handsome young man. She turned the card in her hand. Across the back had been written the name. "Eugene Standbridge Leavitt." Astounded, Nancy cried out: "Why, that--_that is my father's name_!" CHAPTER XXVI EUGENE STANDBRIDGE LEAVITT For a moment Nancy thought she had gone quite crazy! She put her hand to her head to steady its whirling. This was her grandfather--her own father's father! She was the real Anne Leavitt! Aunt Sabrina was fussing over a note-book in which clippings had been pasted. She thought Nancy's agitation quite excusable; she was trembling herself. "That is a family name. The Standbridge comes from our great-grandmother's side. I knew your father had been called Eugene--yes, here's what B'lindy cut out of the newspaper." She placed the open page of the book in Nancy's hands. She told Nancy how, after the quarrel, her father had ordered her to destroy everything about the house that might remind anyone of the disowned son. "I carried out his wishes. After our mother's death my father and I had been constant companions. I was terribly angry at my brother for having brought this grief and shame to my father in his old age. Now----" she caught her breath sharply. "But B'lindy was fond of the boy. She packed these letters and the picture away, and after that, for years, whenever she'd read anything about him in the papers, or hear a word, she'd enter it in this little book. I never knew that until years later. See--here's an account of his wedding. It says he went abroad--he'd always wanted to, even when he was a young lad. Here it tells that he bought a newspaper. Here's where it speaks about his son Eugene."