"Then you will know how to sympathize with us," cried Edith, with a silvery little laugh, "for we have both been in the same condition during the last few hours."
"Indeed! Then I must say you look very bright for a person who has not breathed for 'hours,'" he retorted, as he began to recover himself.
"Well, figuratively speaking, our respiration has been retarded many times, during a short interval, by the strangest developments imaginable," Edith explained. "But how did you trace me to the Waldorf?"
"I had something important to tell you, so ran up to Nellie's to see you, but was told that you had accompanied Mrs. Stewart thither," Roy explained. "I hope, however, I shall be pardoned for interrupting your interview," he concluded with an apologetic glance at the elder lady.
"Certainly; and, strange to say, we were speaking of you almost at the moment that your card was brought to us," she returned. "Edith has had an important communication handed her to-day, which I thought you ought to have, since you are her attorney, without any unnecessary delay."
"Oh! it is most wonderful, Roy! This is it," said the young girl, producing it from her pocket. "But first I must tell you that in Mrs. Stewart I have discovered mamma's old friend—the writer of those letters of which I told you. She did not die in Rome, as was feared."
"Can that be possible?" exclaimed Mr. Bryant.
"Yes, dear. It is a long story, and I cannot stop to tell it all now," Edith went on, eagerly, "but I must explain that she has discovered an important document that proves what makes me the happiest girl in New York to-day. We met at Mrs. Wallace's this afternoon, where some one addressed me as Miss Allandale, when she instantly knew that I must be her child. Isn't it all too wonderful to seem true?"
After chatting a little longer over the wonderful revelations, he suddenly remembered the "important communication" which Mrs. Stewart had mentioned.
"What was the matter of business which you felt needed early consideration?" he inquired.