"But how—how can it be?" asked Hetty with a look almost of terror on her face.
"You are our baby who was supposed to have been drowned," said Reine. "That's how it comes to be. We were wrecked going to France, and you were washed out of my mother's arms. And we thought you were drowned. But God was keeping you safe for me at Wavertree."
"How have you found it all out?" said Hetty, still holding fast by her doubt, which seemed the only plank that could save her from destruction in case this enchanting story should prove to be all a dream.
"It is completely proved, you little sceptic!" cried Reine. "Mr. Enderby would not have you told till the lawyers had pronounced you to be Helen Gaythorne. So ask me no more questions at present, but give me back some of my kisses. You and I are never going to part any more; are we?"
Hetty gave her a long, strange, troubled look, and then suddenly broke out into wild weeping.
"Oh, is it true? Is it really true? Oh, Reine, my sister; if, after this, it comes to be false—I shall die!"
"It cannot come to be false, because it is reality," insisted Reine, as she rocked her weeping sister in her arms. "I shall be mother and sister and all to you, Helen—my poor little motherless darling! Cry away, my dearest, for this once, and then you shall have some tea. And after that you are never to cry any more. You and I will have a great deal too much to say and do together to spend our time over crying. But oh, Hetty—Helen—if mother and father were only here this day!"
And then Reine cried again herself, and Hetty was the comforter. They sat with their young heads together and their warm cheeks touching, and told as much of their life's stories to each other as they could think of at the moment. To Reine the great discovery had come gradually, and so the present hour was not so strange as it was to Hetty. For Hetty the world seemed to have got suddenly under a spell of enchantment. She could not believe in herself as Helen Gaythorne—could not get accustomed to her new vision of life.
"And I shall not need to be a governess. And perhaps I may be an artist if I like."
"You will not need to be either. There is enough of wealth for both of us," said Reine. "But you can study art to your heart's content. And we will go to Italy. And you shall be as happy as a queen."