THE MOST WONDERFUL PART

And now comes the most wonderful part of the story!

Madame Dujardin prepared a bath and said to Marie: "You may have
the first turn in the tub because you're a girl. In America the
girls have the best of everything", she laughed at Jan, as she
spoke. "I will help you undress. Jan, you may get ready and wait
for your turn in your own room." She unbuttoned Marie's dress,
slipped off her clothes, and held up the gay little wrapper for
her to put her arms into, and just then she noticed the locket on
her neck. "We'll take this off, too," she said, beginning to
unclasp it.

But Marie clung to it with both hands. "No, no," she cried.
"Mother said I was never, never to take it off. It has her
picture in it."

"May I see it, dear?" asked Madame Dujardin. "I should like to
know what your mother looks like." Marie nestled close to her,
and Madame Dujardin opened the locket.

For a moment she gazed at the picture in complete silence, her
eyes staring at it like two blue lights. Then she burst into a
wild fit of weeping, and cried out, "Leonie! Leonie! It is not
possible! My own sister's children!" She clasped the bewildered
Marie in her arms and kissed her over and over again. She ran to
the door and brought in Jan and kissed him; and then she called
her husband. When he came in and saw her with her arms around