Bert devoutly hoped so too. Yet thankful as he was that Prin was restored to life, there was a burden on the boy's mind as he thought of the future.
"Will the police want her now, sir?" he asked anxiously of the doctor.
"Ah, the police!" said Dr. Hurst, looking grave. "That is a bad business. So, she was only a sham princess after all!"
"Of course she was never a real one," said Bert.
"Ah! But she might have been!" said the doctor. "'Tis only noble to be good. Every good, true woman is of royal lineage, no matter who her parents were."
"And Prin was not good and true," said Bert sadly; "I will never call her Princess again."
"Don't say that," said Dr. Hurst; "she may be worthy of the title yet. She has life before her, and may live to be thankful for the fall which taught her the misery of wrong-doing. Do you know, lad, there is a ladder by which men and women may climb upwards, and the rungs of that ladder are formed of the mistakes and sins of the past? It is painful climbing for most of us; but she is young, and it will be easier for her."
"Oh, I hope so," said Bert, only half-grasping the meaning of the doctor's words.
Just then there was a rap on the door. Bert ran to open it. A gentleman stood in the narrow space at the foot of the steps. His bearing was such that he looked strangely out of place in that dingy spot, and catching sight of him, the doctor hastened forward.
"Is there not a girl lying dead here whose name was Sinclair?" he asked, with some hesitation of manner.