Ross still held the girl close; but lifted his head, and looked his angry sister in the face. He could not speak, though his tremulous lips moved, and his eyes were flooded. The woman’s voice softened. “Herman, what does this mean?” “It means, my sister, that as God has been merciful, I believe this girl to be my own child!” The man was trembling from head to foot. He put Eva’s face back from his bosom, and looked tenderly down upon it. “Have you never felt this, my darling? Did your soul never tell you the secret that has so long filled mine?” “I have no breath to answer,” faltered the girl. “Your words strike me dumb! How can the things be that you speak of?” “I cannot tell; yet I know. Wait a little while, and you shall both be convinced that I am not out of my mind; let the rest prove as it will.” CHAPTER LXVIII. MISS SPICER RECEIVES HER DISMISSAL. A newspaper was in Mrs. Lambert’s hand. In the listlessness of a mind utterly prostrated, she had taken little heed of passing events, and of the little drama which had been enacted against the Laurence family, almost under the sanction of her own name, was entirely ignorant. It was an old paper which had been wrapped about some parcel at which the lady was looking. Just as she was about to lay it down, her own name, with that of Miss Spicer, astonished her into sudden interest. The article she read was an account of that trial which had sent the Boyce brothers to Sing Sing. Mrs. Lambert knew that Eva had been adopted by the Carters, and that her success in the fashionable world was something marvellous, but of the underhand machinations that led to it, she had never dreamed till now. Ivon Lambert had informed himself of the main features of this disgraceful transaction at the time, but never mentioned them to his step-mother, who was suffering, and so ill that no unpleasant thing was permitted to come near her. She knew in a general way that the man Robert Mahone had left her service; but under what circumstances, every person admitted into her presence was interested in concealing. Thus it happened that this statement in the paper took the proud woman completely by surprise, and aroused the sensitive pride in her nature so completely, that Ellen Post, when she answered the sharp pull of her lady’s bell, was startled by the vivid fire that lighted up those sad features. “Ellen Post, is this thing true?” Mrs. Lambert held the paper out in one hand, pointing to the report with the other. Ellen caught one glimpse of the hateful sheet, recoiled a little, then gave her head a toss, and said, with a degree of careless contempt that did honor to her nerve: