Jane Coney--Ashton I mean: one can't get out of old names all at once--looked down in distress, thinking of the pain it would cause her husband for his sister's sake. Then she took her mother's hand. "Tell Robert what you have told me, mamma. He will still let me go, I think; for he knows how much I wish it." They had their conference away from us; Mrs. Coney, Robert Ashton, and Jane. Of course he was frightfully put out; but Jane was right--he said she should go all the same. Mrs. Coney shut her lips tight, and made no further comment. "I promised her, you see, Mrs. Coney," he urged. "She has an idea in her head that--I'm sure I scarcely know what it is, except that her going is connected with Gratitude and Duty, and--and Heaven's blessing. Why, do you know we might have stayed away another week, but for this? I could have spared it; but she would come home." "I never knew Jane take a thing up like this before," said Mrs. Coney. "Any way, I suppose it is I who shall have to deal with it--for the sake of keeping it from Lucy," was Robert's answer. "I wish with all my heart Bird had been at the bottom of the sea before his ill-omened steps brought him to Timberdale! There's not, as I believe, another such scamp in the world." Jane waited for nothing else. Shielded by the dusk of the evening, she went hastening to Jael Batty's and back again. "I'll go down for her presently," said Robert. But she was back again before he started. "I came back at once to set the misapprehension right," said Jane, her eyes bright with eagerness, her cheeks glowing. "Mother dear--Robert--Johnny--listen, all of you: that poor sick woman is George Bird's sister." "Jane!" "Indeed she is. Captain Bird used to talk to Lucy of his little sister Clara--I have heard you say so, Robert--in the old days when he first came here. It is she who is lying at Jael Batty's--Clara Bird." The company sat down like so many lambs, Mrs. Coney's mouth and eyes alike opening. It sounded wonderful. "But--Jane, child--there was still the baby!" "Well--yes--I'm afraid so," replied Jane, in an uncomfortable hurry. "I did not like to ask her about that, she cries so. But she is Clara Bird; Captain Bird's sister, and Lucy's too." "Well, I never!" cried Mrs. Coney, rubbing her face. "Poor misguided young thing--left to the guardianship of such a man as that, he let her go her own way, no doubt. This accounts for what Broom heard her say in the fever--'George, you should have taken care of me.'" "Is she being taken care of now in her sickness, down at Jael Batty's?" spoke up Robert. "Yes. For Jael, though three-parts deaf, is a kind and excellent nurse." Robert Ashton wrote that night to Worcester; a sharp letter; bidding Captain Bird come over and see to his sister. The poor thing took to Jane wonderfully, and told her more than she'd have told any one else.