"My mother--my mother!" cried Audrey, rising to her feet and grasping at Ralph for support. CHAPTER XXIV ANOTHER PART OF THE TRUTH It was indeed Lady Branwin who sat there, quiet and silent and immovable, gazing at the astonished company. Eddy, with a look of fear on his craven face, had sunk back into his chair the moment he had torn off the veil and had told the wonderful truth. The others could only stare and marvel at the revelation. Audrey, womanlike, was the first to recover the use of her tongue, although Perry Toat--also womanlike--was on the point of breaking into speech. "Yes, you are my mother!" cried Audrey. "Yet I saw your face before at the Pink Shop. How was it I did not recognise you then?" Lady Branwin, as it will be now convenient to call her, laid her finger on her right cheek. "You see, the birthmark of my sister Flora is not here," she said quietly; "for that reason you know me for certain. Even when the mark was there you thought I was your mother, because of the wonderful likeness, and it was only the mark which made you change your mind." "You painted the birthmark on your face?" said Miss Toat, who seemed as astonished as anyone at this extraordinary development. She had expected to learn much, but never that the woman supposed to be dead was still in the flesh and masquerading as Madame Coralie. "Yes, I did," said the other, defiantly, "for reasons which I am now about to tell you. I was nearly discovered by Audrey when my yashmak was torn off in the alcove of the shop, and I half believed and half wished that her instinct would tell her the truth. But her father had mentioned my sister to her, and she was, therefore, prepared to believe that I was her aunt when I told her that I and Flora were twins." "And were you twins?" demanded Ralph, quickly. "Yes," said Lady Branwin, coolly. "In face and figure we were exactly alike, though not in mind, as Flora was always the clever one. Perhaps I may have been a trifle prettier, as the birthmark disfigured Flora--Joseph always said that I was. But Flora's mark was not nearly so dark as this"--she touched her cheek. "Oh, I forgot, I have washed it off." "Why did you do that?" asked Perry Toat, quickly. "Did you come here to declare your real name and explain?" "Yes and no. I came prepared to put aside my veil and show my real face, according to what took place. Eddy has taken me by surprise. But you can now understand, Audrey"--she addressed herself to her daughter--"how it was that the birthmark and my story deceived you." "Yes," said Mrs. Shawe, faintly, and sitting down by her husband to cling to him as if for protection. "And I really believed you; your manner was so different from your true one." "I acted a part, my dear, and, although I say it myself, I acted it very well, as all of you must admit." "You wouldn't have kept your secret so long had you not worn the yashmak," Ralph ventured to remark.