At last the doctor managed to say, "Poor Elsie Winn is very ill."
"Oh, papa, hasn't Mrs. Winn heard from her sister yet?"
And then, before anyone could speak, everybody's attention was drawn to their guest, and Edward came round to his side, and unfastened his necktie, as though he thought he was going to faint.
"'Elsie Winn,' did you say?" he managed to gasp.
"Yes; do you know an Elsie Winn? By the way, I believe Mrs. Winn said her sister's name was Milner," said Mrs. Perceval.
The party round the table stared with open eyes and mouths at Herbert, until their mother, out of pity for their guest, sent all of them from the room but Edward—he still stood by Herbert's chair, until he recovered himself sufficiently to be able to speak.
"I am not sure at all whether this Elsie Winn is my cousin," he said; "but my mother had a sister of that name, whom she has not seen for many years. I do not know her at all; but through a letter that came into our hands by accident, just before I came to school this term, we thought this sister might be alive; and my mother wrote to the lawyer, Mr. Capon, to make enquiries about her."
"If it is the same, she has written to your mother quite recently, but has received no answer; and to-day I found her almost in despair, for two of her children are ill now, chiefly from want of food."
"Oh, dear! And there is money in the bank that my father left, in case she should ever need it," exclaimed Herbert, almost wringing his hands at the thought of this unknown aunt being in such need. "The Elsie Winn I want to find won a scholarship, a year or so ago, and then gave it up because her father died."
"Why, that is our Elsie!" exclaimed Edward and his mother, in the same breath.