"Every woman is a princess, my dear young lady," replied the gallant doctor. "But a real one, Doctor? One who lived in a palace?" "She lived in the palace, yes. She was attached to the household as English governess. The tutor and the governess met, as well they might even in a grand castle, and being in the same boat as regards teaching and birth, they fell in love. The lady was very beautiful, I understand." "And then?" demanded the chorus. "Then they came to America where the field was larger even than in a palace with the _noblesse_. The young wife fell sick and the young husband, having saved a bit of money, brought her up into the mountains. The night Phoebe was born he tried to take a short cut down the mountainside to get a doctor who was stopping at a hotel now in ruins----" Percy bowed his head. "I recognize the spot," he said. "And the young tutor husband not of the nobility fell and hit his head against a rock. He was brought back insensible by an old Indian grandfather of Mrs. Lupo. The beautiful young wife only lived a few days, and when the father was better and the baby stronger the Indian took them and their belongings across the valley to Indian Head, where they have lived ever since." "Poor things," exclaimed Miss Campbell. "What a pitiful, sad story!" "And the wife's name was Phoebe Jones?" asked Billie. "Wrong again," replied the doctor. "Would you have a Jones marry a Jones?" "Then who, pray, was Miss Phoebe Jones?" "Aunt of the Rev. Archibald. For some reason he remembered the name and I suppose gave it to the child." "Then who was the German gentleman who recognized Phoebe?" "Now you are getting down to real romance," replied the doctor. "He was the young noble for whom the Rev. Archibald acted as tutor." Here the doctor spoke slowly and impressively. "He loved the English governess and when she married the poor tutor, his noble heart was broken and never has been mended." "And he never married another?" piped up Mary's small voice. "Oh yes, my dear. The nobility always marries. Singleness is against the rules. He married and has a family of six." "And is that the end of the story?" asked Billie. "No, there is a sequel. It seems that when the Rev. and Mrs. Archibald Jones disappeared from the stage of life without explanation only one person, after a decade or more, still clung to the belief that they were not dead. None other than Miss Phoebe Jones herself, spinster, living in Surrey, England. She recently died leaving her property to her nephew, his wife or possible heirs. It seems that the gentlemen who just now dropped me at your door----" "The disappointed lover?" "Yes. The broken-hearted noble with a wife and six children, knew about this will because the lawyers in trying to trace Mr. Jones and his wife had got into communication with him." "And so they won't be poor," said Nancy. "I'm glad of that. Phoebe looked beautiful in good clothes." Everybody laughed, and then the doctor remarked: