"Why, this is Vince's girl. I know by the favor! God bless you, honey! give your old uncle a hug;" and he put his honest arms around her, and pressed the curly golden head against his breast.
"Did you ever see such impudence, mamma? Kathleen is utterly shameless!" cried Alpine, in a high key of disdain.
"You'll let me stay, won't you, sissy, dear? I'm too old to travel straight back to the country," said Uncle Ben, coaxingly, while he turned a glance of meek pleasure and triumph on the others.
"Alas! dear uncle, this is not my home. I can not invite you to remain, much as I wish to do so," sighed the young girl.
[CHAPTER XL.]
A NEW-FOUND RELATIVE.
As I came through the Valley of Despair,
As I came through the valley, on my sight,
More awful than the darkness of the night,
Shone glimpses of a past that had been fair.
E. W. Wilcox.
Uncle Ben Carew stared in surprise at his niece when she made her strange declaration; but she continued, sadly:
"Uncle Ben, you must not blame papa for his seeming cruelty to you and me when I tell you all. But—but dear papa, when he died, disinherited me, and left his wealth to these two heartless women here."