That night Mrs. Mason went to Helen in her own room, when the twilight shadows were falling, and as she entered the door she said, “My darling,” in a voice so like Helen’s mother’s that the girl’s very heart sprang to meet it.
“My darling, I know now that you are true enough and brave enough to be my sister’s child.”
But Helen shrank back into the darkness, and this time the voice was broken with tears which faltered,—
“Is there any one who could know what I have done, and yet not despise me?”
“There is no one, dear, who dares to scorn the soul that repents and atones.”
And then loving arms held the poor lonesome girl close, and she knew that she was no longer alone. She had found a new home—the home her mother bade her seek—in the heart of that mother’s sister.