“‘Fanny, have you found that box of bon-bons?’
“‘Yes, madame, I have found it,’ was the reply, spoken in Fred’s own natural voice, which sent a thrill through Anna’s veins, and made her heart beat rapidly as she thought of home and Fred, whose voice Fanny’s was so like; and Fanny was like him, too—the same walk, the same motion of the hands, the same turn of the head. Surely, surely, she had seen it all before, and involuntarily grasping Eugenie’s arm, she whispered in a tone of affright:
“‘Who is she—that girl you call Fanny?’
“‘That girl’ heard the question, and, turning square round toward Anna, tore off the cap from the head, and, running her fingers through her curly hair, gave to it the old, natural look, and then stood confronting the startled woman, whose face was white as marble, and whose lips tried in vain to articulate the one word: ‘Fred.’
“He had her in his arms the next moment, kissing her passionately, and saying to her:
“‘It’s I, Anna; truly Fred, and no ghost. I’ve come to get you away, to take you home to mother, who is not dead. Sweet sister, how much you must have suffered; but it is all over now. Madame and I will save you from that dreadful man.’
“Then Anna’s tears began to flow, and she sobbed passionately, while Fred tried to comfort and reassure her by talking of Millfield and home as of things just within her reach.
“‘Before all the summer flowers are gone we will be there,’ he said; ‘but you must be very discreet, and no no-one here must ever know that I am not Fanny Shader. Don’t I make a nice maid? Only Celine thinks my feet and hands too big,’ he said, as he adjusted his jaunty cap again, and walked across the floor with a swinging motion to his skirts which set Anna to laughing hysterically, and so saved her from another fainting fit.
“Eugenie put away her own dresses and finery after that, and left the brother and sister free to talk together of all which had transpired since the day Anna left home with the man who seemed to her more and more a demon, as she learned all he had written of her to her friends.
“‘He must be mad himself,’ she said, ‘as I can see no motive for his pursuing his petty revenge so long and to such extremes.’