"Do you think that she will revive, sir?" inquired Mrs. Thorn, who was watching the patient anxiously. He turned and laid his hand over the girl's heart, knitting his brows with an air of medical wisdom. "Oh, yes," he said, confidently. "There is life here yet. She is weak and exhausted, having eaten but little for several days. Have you tried forcing a little wine between her lips?" "No; we had none," apologized the farmer; "we are but poor folks." Pretty Jennie Thorn blushed and looked away at her father's frank admission. She felt ashamed of their poverty before the haughty glance of the handsome stranger. The man took a little cut-glass flask with a golden stopper from his pocket. It was full of wine, and he lifted Queenie's head on his arm, poured a few drops between her pale lips and suffered them to trickle down her throat. He repeated the operation several times, then laid her head gently back on the pillow. "You will soon see her rally now," he said, looking at Jennie with a smile. "And now I must be making arrangements to take my poor little sister home again." A startled cry came from the lips of the invalid. The man's last words had penetrated her reviving senses. She raised herself on her arm and looked about her at the unfamiliar room and the strange faces around her. "Leon Vinton, _you_ here?" she exclaimed in a piteous tone. "Oh, Heaven, where am I?" "We are all friends, miss," said Mrs. Thorn, soothingly. "You fell exhausted by the roadside, and we took you in and cared for you until your brother came along and found you here." Queenie's eyes flashed scornfully into Leon Vinton's face. "Does _he_ say that he is my brother?" she demanded, pointing her finger at him and looking at Mrs. Thorn. "Yes, miss," answered the woman. "He lies!" exclaimed Queenie, passionately, gaining strength with her anger. "I am nothing to him, nothing! He is trying to deceive you that he may get me into his power!" Leon Vinton sighed mournfully, and shook his head as he looked around at the girl's auditors. "Ah, my friends, I told you she was mad," he said, sadly. "You see she denies her own brother!" "You are _not_ my brother, villain!" exclaimed Queenie, angrily; and looking round at the others, she said: "My good friends, do not believe this man--I am no relative of his, and he is trying to deceive you, and get me into his power to torture my life out! Oh, sir, I appeal to you, and to you, madam, also, to protect me from this villain. Drive him forth this moment from this honest house whose pure air he pollutes with his foul presence!" The farmer and his wife began to cast dark looks at Leon Vinton, so impressed were they with the earnestness of the girl's words and looks. They began to think it was the truth she spoke instead of the ravings of madness. The arch villain soon saw that they were inclined to doubt his word, and threw fresh earnestness and eloquence into his dramatic manner.