He did hear, and comprehended it too, but for some moments he could only weep over her and call her his “darling Milly.” Then, when more composed, he listened while she told him what she knew, interspersing her narrative with the kisses which had so astonished Edith and sent her with the wondrous tale to the drawing-room, from which she soon returned, and marching this time boldly up to Mildred, said: “That big man says you mustn’t tiss him any more,” and she looked askance at Lawrence, who laughed aloud at the little creature’s attitude and manner. “This is to be your brother,” said Mildred, and lifting Edith up, she placed her on the bed with Lawrence, who kissed her chubby cheeks and called her “little sister.” “You’ve growed awfully up in heaven,” said Edith, mistaking him for the boy-baby who had died with her mother, for in no other way could she reconcile the idea of a brother. “What does she mean?” asked Lawrence, and with a merry laugh Mildred explained to him how Edith, who had been taught that she had a brother and sister in heaven, had mistaken her for an angel, asking to see her wings, and had now confounded him with the baby buried in her mother’s coffin. “I don’t wonder she thinks I’ve grown,” said he; “but she’s right, Milly, with regard to you. You are an angel.” Before Mildred could reply, Richard called to her, bidding her come down, and leaving Edith with Lawrence, she hastened to the parlor, where the Judge was waiting to receive her. With heaving chest and quivering lip, he held her to himself, and she could feel the hot tears dropping on her hair, as he whispered: “My Gipsy, my Spitfire, my diamond, my precious, precious child. If I hadn’t been a big old fool, I should have known you were a Howell, and that madame couldn’t have imposed that stuff on me. Hanged if I ever believed it! Didn’t I swear all the time ’twas a lie? Say grandpa once, little vixen. Say it once, and let me hear how it sounds!” “Dear, dear grandpa,” she answered, kissing him quite as she had kissed Lawrence Thornton. “And Clubs went for you,” he continued. “Heaven bless old Clubs, but how did he find it out? Hanged if I understand it yet.” Then as his eye fell on Geraldine, who still sat in the corner, stupefied and bewildered, he shook his fist at her threateningly, bidding her tell in a minute what she knew of Esther Bennett and the confounded plot. “Yes, Geraldine,” said Mr. Thornton, advancing toward her, “you may as well confess the part you had in this affair. It is useless longer to try to conceal it. Oliver heard enough to implicate you deeply, and Mrs. Thompson,” turning to Hepsy, whom greatly against her will Oliver had managed to keep there, “Mrs. Thompson will, of course, tell what she knows, and so save herself from——” “Utter disgrace,” he was going to add, when poor, ignorant Hepsy, thinking he meant “_jail_,” screamed out: