It implied alarm, mistrust, and something that was almost defiance, yet with hints of a possible tenderness.
It was such a look as a daughter, stolen from her cradle and grown to maidenhood among strangers, might fix upon the woman claiming to be her mother, except that not only was Miss Ludington a stranger to Ida, but the relation which she claimed to sustain to her was one that had never before been realized between living persons on earth, however it might be, in heaven.
"Do you understand ?" said Paul.
"I--think--I--do.

But how--strange--it is!" she replied, in lingering tones, her gaze continuing to rest, as if fascinated, upon Miss Ludington.
The latter's face expressed a great elation, an impassioned tenderness held in check through fear of terrifying its object.
"I do not wonder it seems strange," she said, very softly.

"You have yet no evidence as to who I am.

I remember you--oh, how well!--but you cannot remember me, nor is there any instinct answering to memory by which you can recognize me.

You have a right to require that I should prove that I am what I claim to be; that I am also Ida Ludington; that I am your later self.