"Do not fear. I hope never to do anything to forfeit her respect, except it is for the sake of her own happiness, as when to-day I tried to make her think my veins were filled with ice-water instead of blood. Come, I have kept you far too long. Let us go through the formality of supper; and then I will prove to you that if I have been weak here I can be strong for her sake. I do not remember my mother; but nature is strong, and I suppose there comes a time in every one's life when he must speak to some one as he would to a mother. You have been very kind, dear aunt, and I shall never forget that you have wished and schemed for my happiness." The old lady came and put her arm around the young man's neck and looked into his face with a strange wistfulness as she said, slowly: "There is no blood relationship between us, Alford, but we are nearer akin than such ties could make us. You do not remember your mother; I never had a child. But, as you say, nature is strong; and although I have tried to satisfy myself with a hundred things, the mother in my heart has never been content. I hoped, I prayed, that you and Grace might become my children. Alford, I have been learning of late that I am a lonely, unhappy old woman. Will you not be my boy? I would rather share your sorrow than be alone in the world again." Graham was deeply touched. He bowed his head upon her shoulder as if he were her son, and a few hot tears fell from his eyes. "Yes, aunt," he said, in a low tone, "you have won the right to ask anything that I can give. Fate, in denying us both what our hearts most craved, has indeed made us near akin; and there can be an unspoken sympathy between us that may have a sustaining power that we cannot now know. You have already taken the bitterness, the despair out of my sorrow; and should I go to the ends of the earth I shall be the better for having you to think of and care for." "And you feel that you cannot remain here, Alford?" "No, aunt, that is now impossible; that is, for the present." "Yes, I suppose it is," she admitted, sadly. "Come, aunty dear, I promised Miss St. John that we would go over as usual to-night, and I would not for the world break my word." "Then we shall go at once. We shall have a nice little supper on our return. Neither of us is in the mood for it now." After a hasty toilet Graham joined his aunt. She looked at him, and had no fears. CHAPTER XI THE ORDEAL Grace met them at the door. "It is very kind of you," she said, "to come over this evening after a fatiguing journey." "Very," he replied, laughingly; "a ride of fifty miles in the cars should entitle one to a week's rest." "I hope you are going to take it."