Uncle Tom and Mr. Harding used to call him Jack, I have heard Aunt Mary
say."

"Who was Mr. Harding?" asked Miss Merivale quickly.

"He was father's partner for a little while. I don't remember him at all.
He is a rich man now, and lives in Adelaide."

"Your father came from Adelaide, Mrs. M'Alister told me. My sister lived
in Melbourne. Then you can tell me nothing else?"

Rhoda hesitated a moment. Miss Merivale's voice had been cold and
constrained, but there was a beseeching eagerness in her glance. She
unclasped a little locket from her watch-chain and passed it across the
table. "That and my little Bible is all I have. It must have been my
mother's, I think."

Miss Merivale caught up the little locket with trembling fingers. She rose
and went to the window, and stood with her back to Rhoda, apparently
examining it.

But her eyes were too full of tears for her to see it plainly. She knew
the little locket well. She herself had given it to Lydia one birthday. It
was her own hair under the glass, with the ring of tiny pearls round it.
All doubt vanished from her mind. She was certain now that Rhoda was her
niece.

She came back to the side of the table where Rhoda was sitting, and put
her hand on her shoulder as she gave her back the locket.