Godmother dear, isn't it a strange thing that Maureen should have prepared his room yesterday, saying that he would be with us before night ?" "Bawn, Bawn," cried my godmother, very pale, "if you do not mean that Luke L'Estrange has come home I can never forgive you." "And I should deserve not to be forgiven," I said.

"He has come home." "I knew he was not dead." "He is alive and well, and one of the first inquiries he made was for you." "Now they shall see," she said exultantly, and her lips curled, "how much truth there was in those slanders of Garret Dawson's.

Dear old souls! why were they afraid?
Why would they not let me challenge him ?" "They were not so foolish," I said.

"He held papers.

If Uncle Luke had not come home we could not have disproved them." "And there is an end to your marriage ?" she asked breathlessly.
I held out my hand to her.