Then she closed her eyes, but she felt about with her hand until it
clasped the little warm hand of the child.

"Go back to your room now, Cecile," said Aunt Lydia.

But the dying hand pressed the little hand, and Cecile answered
gravely and firmly:

"Stepmother 'ud like me to stay, Aunt Lydia."

Aunt Lydia did not speak again, and for half an hour there was
silence. Suddenly Cecile's stepmother opened her eyes bright and wide.

"Lovedy," she said, "Lovedy; find Lovedy," and then she died.




CHAPTER V.

THE TIN BOX AND ITS TREASURE.


Cecile and Maurice D'Albert were the orphan children of a French
father and a Spanish mother. Somewhere in the famous valleys of the
Pyrenees these two had loved each other, and married. Maurice
D'Albert, the father, was a man of a respectable class and for that
class of rather remarkable culture. He owned a small vineyard, and
had a picturesque chateau, which he inherited from his ancestors,