“Apoplexy, it has almost given me that,” he whispered as the fresh air blew gratefully upon him, and he drank the water Guy brought to him. Then leaning his head against the back of his chair, he said: “I am greatly shocked by this story you have told me. It seems reasonable and may be true, though I do not deserve it. I’ve been a villain, a rascal. I abused and neglected Laura; I ought to have come home when she first wrote about the baby, and should have done so but for that devilish trait of mine, to follow a pretty face. I had an Italian woman in tow and it blunted every other feeling, and when I heard the child was dead I did not care so very much, though I wrote to her kindly enough; and now, to have this great good come so suddenly upon me is too much,—too much,”— _Guy_ believed in Magdalen, and his belief had so colored his story that Mr. Grey believed in her, too, at first. Then a doubt began to creep into his mind, as was very natural, and he asked, “Where is she, and how does she propose to prove it?” “She is in No.——. She wishes to see you first. Will you go to her now?” Guy said; and Mr. Grey arose, and leaning on Guy started for the room where Magdalen was waiting for him. When the first great shock came upon her Magdalen had thought only of Alice, the darling sister it might be, and of the poor worn-out wreck which, though a wreck, might be her mother still, and her heart had gone out after them both and enfolded them with all a daughter’s and sister’s love, but in this sudden gush of affection Mr. Grey had had little part. So great had her excitement been, and so rapidly had she acted upon her convictions, that she had scarcely thought of him in any other capacity than that of her employer. But as she sat waiting for him, there suddenly swept over her the consciousness that if what she hoped was true, then he was her own father, and for a moment she rebelled against it as against some impending evil. “Roger is his sworn enemy,” she whispered faintly, as her mind went back to the time when Roger had cursed him as his mother’s ruin. “Roger will never forgive my being _his_ daughter,” she thought, and for an instant she wished she had never told her suspicions to a human being, but had kept them locked in her own bosom. Then she thought of Alice, and that comforted her, and made her calm and composed when she heard the knock at her door and saw Guy coming in with Mr. Grey.