"Oh, Mr. Arthur, you did come back," and forgetting, in her great joy, that Arthur was a gentleman, and she a waiting-maid, Edith wound her arms around his neck, and kissed him twice ere he well knew what she was doing.
For an instant the haughty young man felt a flush of insulted dignity, but it quickly vanished when he saw the tall form of Richard bending over the little girl and heard him saying to her,
"Have you no welcoming kiss for me?"
"Yes, forty hundred, if you like," and in her delight Edith danced about the room like one insane.
Thrusting the locket slily into Arthur's hand, she whispered,
"I slept with her last night, and dreamed it was not the first time either. Will you ask her when you see her if she ever knew me?"
"Yes, yes," he answered, making a gesture for her to stop as
Richard was about to speak.
"Edith, said Richard, winding his arm around her, "Edith, I have come to take you home—to take you to Collingwood to live with me. Do you wish to go?"
"Ain't there ghosts at Collingwood?" asked Edith, who, now that what she most desired was just within her reach, began like every human being to see goblins in the path. "Ain't there ghosts, at Collingwood?—a little boy with golden curls, and must I sleep in the chamber with him?"
"Poor child," said Richard, "You too, have heard that idle tale. Shall I tell you of the boy with golden hair?" and holding her so close to him that he could feel the beating of her heart and hear her soft, low breathing, he told her all there was to tell of his half-brother Charlie, who died just one day after his young mother, and was buried in the same coffin.