Part 26 (1/2)

”The man who gave you his card, my dear maiden, was your father's own cousin, and I feel sure he once felt great love for your mother. He told me of having seen a young maid who was so much the image of a beloved friend of the past that he desired to know her name. And tears filled his eyes when I showed him a small painted picture of your mother that had lain in Mistress Brace's little trunk. For she would have us find the trunk and see what was hiding inside.”

”There!” again exclaimed Sally, ”I have said to my Fairy, 'How know I but Mistress Cory Ann hath things that were my mother's and should belong to me?'”

”There was a cape of finest needlework,” continued the parson, ”probably the one you saw, also a letter of importance, as it told the name of your mother's family, and a few articles beside money, of value to you, found in the little trunk. Here is the picture of your poor mamma.”

Sally gazed with curious eyes at the little painting that was so like her own face as seen in the mirror, that she exclaimed:

”It is like my own face!” and suddenly she kissed it, a quick, warm kiss.

”I wonder what made me do that?” she asked, with a feeling of confusion.

”I think it was your warm French blood,” said Parson Kendall.

”And what was my mother's name?” asked Sally.

”Earlscourt. She was of the same house as Lady Gabrielle, wife of Sir Percival Grandison, although well removed. Officer Duquesne of the British army thought your mother lost money through some of her relatives, who have died, so nothing can be proved.”

”Enough has been proved!” cried Maid Sally.

Parson Kendall smiled.

”There speaketh your good Fairy,” he said; ”enough _has_ been proved.

You are of n.o.ble blood on your father's side, and the Earlscourts hold themselves to be of the best, as no doubt they are. What better could'st thou wish?”

Sally was speechless.

She had not taken in the whole truth of the last fact until it was thus plainly set before her.

Of kin to her Fairy Prince!

Could it be true? Yet here sat Parson Kendall, who had heard the story from her father's own cousin, a man who knew root and branch all the truth as to her kindred and relations.

”I think I had better go away and be alone by myself,” said Sally, her face crimson, a feverish light in her eyes.

”We will say nothing of this outside the house for the present,” advised the parson. ”Officer Duquesne is one of the king's men,--and by the way, we had but until lately a fort of that name,--and he quite likely will acquaint Lady Grandison with the fact that she hath a young kinswoman in the town. But, my dear damsel, she would, I fear, look but coldly just now on one whom she would regard as a little rebel.”

”Then her son is a rebel, too,” said Sally, with dimples plumping in.

”Yes, and hath been aided in helping the rebel army, by his young kinswoman, Sara Duquesne,” laughed Parson Kendall with quiet glee.

”I must go away by myself awhile,” again said Maid Sally.

”And take thy good Fairy with thee,” said the parson. ”But return from wherever thou goest in an hour, for Goodwife Kendall and myself go to Cloverlove plantation to dine, and we go by stage, which pa.s.ses there and will not return until near evening.

”I have lessons for thee to learn, and would not have thee dwell too much on the knowledge that hath come to thee, and is indeed very pleasant.”

”I think the world has turned topsyturvy,” said the maiden, with the look of one who dreams.