soft and delicate white little hand, all marked inside with curious
ragged scars that I'd known and observed ever since I first knew
her. I held it in silence for a minute. Somehow I felt our positions
were reversed to-day. This interview had suddenly brought out what I
know now to be my own natural and inherent character--self-reliant,
active, abounding in initiative. For four years I had been as a
child in her hands, through mere force of circumstances. My true
self came out now and asserted its supremacy.

"No, dear," I said, soothing her cheek; "I shall go alone. I shall
try what I can discover and remember myself without any suggestion
or explanation from others. I want to find out how things really
stand. I shall set to work on my own account to unravel this
mystery."

"But how can you manage things by yourself?" Aunt Emma exclaimed,
wringing her hands despondently. "A girl of your age! without even a
maid! and all alone in the world! I shall be afraid to let you go.
Dr. Wade won't allow it."

I drew myself up very straight, and realised the position.

"Aunt Emma," I said plainly, in a decided voice, "I'm a full-grown
woman, over twenty-one years of age, mistress of my own acts, and no
longer a ward of yours. I can do as I like, and neither Dr. Wade nor
anybody else can prevent me. He may ADVICE me not to go: he has no
power to ORDER me. I'm my father's heiress, and a person of
independent means. I've been a cipher too long. From to-day I take
my affairs wholly into my own hands. I 'll go round at once and see
your lawyer, your banker, your agent, your tradesmen, and tell them