It was not possible for Mrs. Seymour to keep perfectly quiet with regard to the cause of Magdalen’s sudden journey to Cincinnati, especially as Alice herself talked and wondered so much about it. Little by little it came out, until Alice had heard the entire story, which made her for a time almost as crazy as Laura herself. A few lines from Guy written hurriedly in the cars, on his way to Schodick, told her at last that what she hoped was true, and then in the solitude of her room she knelt, and amid tears of joy and choking sobs paid her vows of praise and thanksgiving, and asked that she might be made worthy of the priceless gift so suddenly bestowed upon her. The next day a telegram from her father apprised her that he would be home that night “with Magdalen, your sister;” and Alice kissed the words “your sister,” and repeating them softly to herself went dancing about the house, now explaining to the astonished servants, and again trying to convey some definite idea to the darkened mind of her mother. But Laura’s only answer was, “Baby is in the cradle. I see her if you do not.” She was, however, pleased that Magdalen was coming home, and asked to be made “tidy and nice, so that Magda would be glad.” Once, as Alice was buttoning the clean wrapper and arranging the crimson shawl, which gave a soft tint to the sallow, faded face, the poor creature’s lip quivered a little as she said, “Am I really nice, and will Arthur kiss me, think you? I wish he would. It might make me better. Your talk of Cincinnati has brought queer things back to me, and sometimes I can almost get hold of how it was, then it goes again. I wish Arthur _would_ kiss me.” “I hope he will. I think he will,” Alice said, her own kisses falling in showers upon the wasted face of the invalid, who seemed more rational than she had for many weeks. As the day wore on and the hour approached for the travellers to arrive, Alice grew very restless and impatient, and would not for an instant leave the window where she watched anxiously for the carriage. “They are coming; they are here,” she cried at last, and running into the hall she was the first to welcome Magdalen, whose face was drenched with tears, and whose heart throbbed with an entirely new sensation of happiness as she felt Alice’s kisses upon her lips and the tight clasp of her arms about her neck.