Before he slept the doctor wrote his letter to Helen. It was a long one, and a joyous one. It told everything that Burke had said, even to his plaintive plea for a private secretary. There could be no doubt now, no further delay, declared the doctor. Helen would come home at once, of course. It only remained for them to decide on the mere details of just how and when. Meanwhile, when might they expect her in Boston? She would come, of course, to his sister's first; and he trusted it would be soon--very soon. Addressing the letter to Mrs. Helen Darling, the doctor tucked it into his pocket to be mailed at the station in the morning. Then, for the few hours before rising time, he laid himself down to sleep. But he did not sleep. His brain was altogether too actively picturing the arrival of Helen Denby and her daughter at the old Denby Mansion, and the meeting between them and the master of the house. And to think that at last it was all coming out right! CHAPTER XIX THE STAGE IS SET Impatient as was the doctor for an answer to his letter, it came before he expected, for a cablegram told of Helen's almost immediate departure for America. "I thought that would fetch her," he crowed to his sister. "And she'll be here just next week Wednesday. That'll get her up to Dalton before Sunday." "Perhaps," observed Mrs. Thayer cautiously. "No 'perhaps' to it," declared the doctor,--"if the boat gets here. You don't suppose she's going to delay any longer now, do you? Besides, isn't she starting for America about as soon as she can? Does that look as if she were losing much time?" "No, it doesn't," she admitted laughingly. The doctor and his sister were not surprised to see a very lovely and charming Helen with the distinction and mellow maturity that the dozen intervening years had brought. Her letters had shown them something of that. But they were not prepared for the changes those same years had wrought in Dorothy Elizabeth. To Helen, their frank start of amazement and quick interchange of glances upon first sight of the girl were like water to a long-parched throat. "You do think she's lovely?" she whispered to the frankly staring doctor, as Mrs. Thayer welcomed the young girl. "Lovely! She's the most beautiful thing I ever saw!" avowed the doctor, with a laughing shrug at his own extravagance. "And she's just as sweet and dear as she is lovely," whispered back the adoring mother, as the girl turned to meet the doctor. "You've your mother's eyes, my dear," said the doctor, very much as he had said it to the little Betty years before. "Have I?" The girl smiled happily. "I'm so glad! I love mother's eyes." It was not until hours later, when Betty had gone to bed, that there was any opportunity to talk over plans. Then, before the fire in the library, Helen found herself alone with the doctor and his sister. "You see, I came almost as soon as I could," she began at once. "I did stay one day--for a wedding." "A wedding?"