Mrs. Marvin was about to reply when their bell rang sharply.  Both rose from the table and went into the little parlor.  A moment later some one tapped at the door, and Faith opened it promptly.  She confronted an acquaintance; it was the man whom she had met, and who had written her the note signed “Cornelius C. Deering.”

For an instant Faith was shocked out of every semblance of hospitality.  She stood staring at the man as if he were an intruder.

Like a flash it passed through her mind that she had not answered his letter, and that he had presumed upon that silence to force his presence upon her.  The next instant she was brought swiftly back to her senses, for the man was staring back at her as though she were a ghost, and the expression on his face was almost pitiful.

“What is it, sir?  What has happened?” she asked, taking a step forward.

“I think I have made a mistake,” said the man, huskily.  “I had no idea, I assure you, of intruding upon you.”

“There are twenty families in the house, so your mistake is natural,” said Faith coldly.  “Pray mention the name you wish, as I can probably direct you.”

“I am looking for a lady and her daughter,” said the man distinctly, “the lady is my sister whom I have not seen in twenty years.  She is a widow, and her name is Mrs. Adelaide Marvin.”

With a gasp of horror Faith staggered back into the room just as her mother sprang forward with a joyous greeting.

“Oh, Charles, my brother!” she cried, falling on his shoulder.  “How I have longed to see you, you naughty boy, every day since you ran away from us in dear old England!”

CHAPTER XXX.

The unexpected fortune.

The next act of Faith’s was one of noble heroism.  In that moment of misery she forced herself to think only of her mother, thus ignoring her own position in the matter entirely.

Without a word she walked back into the kitchen, leaving brother and sister together, and taking little Dick in her lap, tried to think the matter over as calmly as possible.

It was an embarrassing position, look at it as she would, but not so much for herself as for the man whom she now knew to be her own uncle.

As the moments passed she heard her mother’s voice grow more and more pleading, and although she could not hear what was being said, she conjectured rightly that she was urging her brother to accede to something, while he as steadily refused the accession.

Finally the hall door closed and Faith heard him descending the stairs.  In an instant she hurried to join her mother in the parlor.

“Oh, Faith!” cried her mother, “can you believe it, dear, it was brother Charles, alive and well, when I had given him up for dead over and over again!  And, Faith, you will never have to work another day, for we are almost rich, dear brother says.  He has fifty thousand dollars in trust for me from my father’s estate, which has only lately been settled!”