"Am I----" "You are to that woman," broke in Paul, indicating Miss Ludington, "what the child would have been to you.

You are bound to her by the same tie by which that little girl would have been bound to you.

She remembers and loves you as you would remember and love that child; but you do not know her any more than that child would know you.

You both share the name of Ida Ludington, according to the usage of men as to names; but I think there is no danger of your being confounded with each other, either in your own eyes or those of lookers-on." Ida had at last comprehended.

The piercing look, expressive of mingled attraction and repulsion, which she fixed upon Miss Ludington, left no doubt of that.