“Oh, Joe!” cried Lotty, really carried away with admiration, and ashamed of her skeptical spirit.  “Oh,” she whispered, “ain’t you splendid!”

“But you must not go, Dr. Washington,” said Clara, “without coming again to say farewell.  Will you not dine with us to-night?  Will you stay and have lunch?”

“No, madam, I thank you.  It will be best for me to leave Iris alone with you.  The sooner she learns your English ways and forgets American ways, the better.”

“But you are not going to start away for Liverpool at once?  You will stay a day or two in London—­”

The American physician said that perhaps he might stay a week longer for scientific purposes.

“Have you got enough money, Joe?” asked the new Iris thoughtfully.

Joe gave her a glance of infinite admiration.

“Well,” he said, “the fact is that I should like to buy a few books and things.  Perhaps—­”

“Cousin,” said Lotty eagerly, “please give him a check for a hundred pounds.  Make it a hundred.  You said everything was mine.  No, Joe, I won’t hear a word about repayment, as if a little thing like fifty pounds, or a hundred pounds, should want to be repaid!  As if you and I could ever talk about repayment!”

Clara did as she was asked readily and eagerly.  Then Joe departed, promising to call and say farewell before he left England, and resolving that in his next visit—­his last visit—­there should be another check.  But he had made one mistake; he had parted with the papers.  No one in any situation of life should ever give up the power, until he has secured the substance.  But it is human to err.

“And now, my dear,” said Clara warmly, “sit down and let us talk.  Arnold is coming to lunch with us, and to make your acquaintance.”

When Arnold came a few minutes later, he was astonished to find his cousin already on the most affectionate terms with the newly-arrived Iris Deseret.  She was walking about the room showing her the pictures of her grandfather and other ancestors, and they were hand-in-hand.

“Arnold,” said Clara, “this is Iris, and I hope you will both be great friends; Iris, this is my cousin, but he is not yours.”

“I don’t pretend to know how that may be,” said the young lady.  “But then I am glad to know all your cousins, whether they are mine or not; only don’t bother me with questions, because I don’t remember anything, and I don’t know anything.  Why, until the other day I did not even know that I was an English lady, not until they found those papers.”

A strange accent for an American! and she certainly said “laidy” for “lady,” and “paipper” for “paper,” like a cockney.  Alas!  This comes of London Music Halls even to country-bred damsels!

Arnold made a mental observation that the new-comer might be called anything in the world, but could not be called a lady.  She was handsome, certainly, but how could Claude Deseret’s daughter have grown into so common a type of beauty?  Where was the delicacy of feature and manner which Clara had never ceased to commend in speaking of her lost cousin?