"When I was much younger than I am now," she replied, "I often used to try to piece together what, even then, seemed like the broken fragments of a number of dreams all jumbled up together, but I never could make anything of them. Nowadays, my mind seldom travels back so far. Why, indeed, should it? I suppose everything has been told me which it is good for me to know, and assuming that to be so, why should I trouble further?" "Nothing has been told you yet," said John, gently. A startled look came into her eyes. "Then something remains to be told," she said with a little break in her voice--"something about the parents of whom I remember nothing--nothing!" "My dear, neither my sister nor I have any more knowledge of your parents than you yourself have." Her cheek paled suddenly, "Oh!--Can that be true? And yet you are my uncle and aunt! How, then?" She stared helplessly from one to the other. John drew his chair closer to Hermy's, and taking one of her hands in both his, pressed it tenderly. "Ah," he said, with an infinite pathos in his voice, "therein lies the secret--the secret which has been kept from you for so many years, but which must be told you at last." Here he pressed her hand a little harder. "My darling child--for so I may surely call you--it seems a cruel thing to be compelled to say, but we are not your uncle and aunt--I and my sister. In point of fact, we are no relatives at all." Hermia's eyes were not bent on John, but on the fire, but just then they saw no more of what they seemed to be gazing at, than if they had been struck with blindness. Twice her lips shaped themselves as if to speak, but no sound came from them. A large tear gathered in the corner of each eye, lingered there for a moment, and then fell. John himself was unable to continue for a little while. "And now," he went on, "having told you so much, I must, of course, tell you the rest, for my sister agrees with me that the time has come when you should be made aware of as much of your history as it is in our power to impart to you. After all, there is not much to tell, as you will be able presently to judge for yourself." He paused for a few moments as if to gather his thoughts, and then resumed.