For an instant Arthur stood like one stricken with catalepsy, his eyes leaping from Jerry’s face to Gretchen’s, and from Gretchen’s back to Jerrie’s, and then, with a motion of his hands as if fanning the air furiously, he gasped: 

‘Twenty years ago—­twenty years ago?  How old are you, Cherry?’

‘About twenty,’ she answered, but her voice was a whisper, and her head fell forward a little, though she kept her eyes upon Arthur, who went on: 

’And they christened my baby and Gretchen’s you say?  What name did they give her?  Speak quick, for I believe I am dying.’

’They called her Jerrine, but you know her as Jerrie, for—­for I am Gretchen’s daughter,’ fell from Jerrie’s lips.

With a wild, glad cry, ’My daughter! oh, my daughter!  Thank God! thank God!’ Arthur sank back into the chair, from which he had risen, fainting and insensible.

For hours he lay in a state so nearly resembling death that but for the physician’s reassurance that there was no danger, Jerrie would have believed the great joy given her was to be taken from her at once.  But just as the twilight shadows began to gather in the room he came to himself, waking as from some quiet dream, and looking around him until his eyes fell upon Jerrie sitting by his side; then into his white face there flashed a look of ineffable joy and tenderness and love, as he said, with a smile the most willing and sweet Jerrie had ever seen.

’My daughter, my little Cherry, who came to me up the ladder, with Gretchen’s eyes and Gretchen’s voice, and I did not know her—­have not known her all these years, although she has so puzzled and bewildered me at times.  My daughter! oh, my daughter!’

He accepted her unquestioningly, and with a glad cry Jerrie threw herself into the arms he stretched toward her, and on her father’s bosom gave free vent to the feelings she had restrained so long, sobbing passionately as she felt Arthur’s kisses upon her face, and his caressing hands upon her hair, as he kept repeating: 

‘My daughter!  Gretchen’s baby and mine!’

’There is more to tell.  I have not heard it all, or how you came by the information,’ he said, when Jerrie was little composed and could look at and speak to him without a burst of tears.

’Yes, there is much more.  There is a letter for you, with those you wrote to her,’ Jerrie said, ’but you must not have them to-night.  To-morrow you will be stronger, now you must rest.’

She spoke like one with authority, and he did just what she bade him do—­took the food she brought him, went to bed when she said he must, and, with her hand locked in his, fell into a heavy slumber, which lasted all through the night, and late into the next morning.  It almost seemed as if he would never waken, the sleep was so like death; but the doctor who watched him carefully quieted Jerrie’s fears and told her it would do her father good, and that in all probability he would awake with a clearer mind than he had had in years, for as a great and sudden shock sometimes produces insanity, so, contrarywise, it sometimes restored a shattered mind to its equilibrium.