It was arranged that the two couples, with Miss Forester as chaperon, should all come to St. Petersburg together. There Felix and Rona would be married, and Nadia and Miss Forester accompany Denzil and his aunt to England, that the Russian girl might have a sight of her new home before returning to Russia in the winter for her own wedding. Before they arrived Miss Rawson was in possession of all that could ever be known of Veronica's origin. Rankin Leigh succeeded in ascertaining that her mother had been secretly married to John Mauleverer. The young man had taken this step, as is frequently done by the weak, hoping against hope that some chance of avowing his marriage without incurring the displeasure of his parents might arise. He was a delicate, timid young man. The strain of the position, the anguish of knowing that the unconscious parents were arranging another match for their son, was too much for the unacknowledged wife, who fretted herself ill in her solitude, and died when her baby was six months old. The young father, thus released, married almost immediately the lady chosen by his parents. He placed his daughter in the Convent School, keeping her existence a secret to the last. He probably intended to provide for the child, but took no steps to do so. He was still a young man when his death occurred, very unexpectedly. He left two sons by his second wife. The discovery of the marriage certificate putting it beyond doubt that Rona was legally his daughter, Rankin Leigh thought that the Mauleverers, if approached, must be willing, if not to acknowledge her, at least to make her some allowance. Over this information Miss Rawson pondered much in the solitude which she had to endure before the young people joined her. The Girl from Nowhere was then, as she had always felt, of good blood. The race instinct had not deceived Aunt Bee, and she felt a pardonable pride in realizing this. She wondered how far Denzil had, unconsciously, been influenced by the obscurity of origin of the girl he had befriended. His aunt, reflecting as we have seen upon the mixed nature of human motive, thought it possible that the fact might have turned the scale for him without his being conscious of its weight. She laid side by side the photo of Nadia and the photo of Rona, and marveled as she reflected that Denzil had chosen the alien type. She could not tell whether Rona was happy. She was haunted by the idea that she must have stood aside upon finding that Denzil had changed his mind, and that it had not been possible for her to evade an engagement with the younger brother. Altogether, in her lonely sojourn in the Russian capital the maiden aunt went through a good deal. It was with more agitation than she remembered to have experienced in her sixty years that she awaited the arrival of the party from Savlinsky.