"Do you need money?"

"No."

"Are you in love?"

"The idea! A thousand times no."

"Are you going to be expelled?"

"Not unless I tell on myself; perhaps not even then. But oh, Tib, I told you I was in for a sc.r.a.pe. I thought I could stick it through, but it's worse than I thought. I can't keep the secret; I've got to tell."

"I would, and then you'll feel better."

"No, I will not, for telling will not do any good. I'm not sure but it will do harm."

"You poor child, what can it be?"

"Just this--Jim is _not_ the prince."

"I don't see how you know that, or, if you do, what business it is of yours."

"Because I deceived Miss Prillwitz, and got Jim in there by making her think he was the boy she had heard about, while the real boy is somewhere else. I've _got_ to tell her before his friends take him away, and before that other boy disappears from view entirely."

"That is really dreadful, but if you know where the true prince is, it can't be quite irreparable. What ever made you do such a thing? and how did you manage to do it?"

"Why, you see, I hadn't any faith in this story of a lost prince at all.

I thought that Miss Prillwitz was just a little bit of a crank, who had been imposed on by designing people and I was sure, when I saw the woman at the door who came to tell Miss Prillwitz that her boy had a situation and could not come, that she had been in league with the person who had told Miss Prillwitz about the lost prince, but had backed out of the plot because she was afraid. Miss Prillwitz had evidently not suspected that she knew anything of the boy's supposed expectations, for she had merely promised to take him to board, teach, and clothe, for whatever the mother could give her, the woman having said that she was going into a family as German nursery governess, and agreeing to send a trifle toward her boy's support whenever she received her salary. It was just the time that Mrs. Halsey was looking for a place for Jim. It was so easy to have him come at the time agreed upon and take the place of the other boy. I was afraid, at first, that Miss Prillwitz would be surprised by the regularity of our payments and the amount we sent, but she didn't seem to suspect anything, and she is so fond of him, and he deserves it all--and everything worked so well up to the coming of the prince."

"But, Winnie, why didn't you tell her the whole story at first? I think she would have taken him, all the same, and then you would not have got things into this awful muddle."

"Indeed she would not have taken him, a mere pauper out of the slums, unless she had thought that he was something more. She is a born aristocrat, and she never could have taken Jim to her heart so if she had not believed that he was of her own cla.s.s--of her family, even. Why, even Adelaide would never have seen half the fine qualities in him which she thinks she has discovered if she had not thought him a n.o.ble; and it has thrown a fine halo of romance over him for Milly; and even Emma Jane, who was hard to convince at first, is firmly persuaded that he is made of a little finer clay than the rest of us. And you, Tib, confess that you are disappointed yourself."

"I am bitterly disappointed," I admitted; "but that is nothing to the extent that Miss Prillwitz will feel it. I wouldn't be in your shoes, Winnie, for anything."

"I know it; I know it. I have been wicked, but I had no idea that the family would ever look him up. I hardly believed the story that there had been any prince lost. And, Tib, if there had not been, where would have been the harm in what I did?"

"It would have been wrong, all the same, Winnie, even if it had seemed to turn out well. Deception is always wrong, and I did not think it of you. But there, don't sob so, or you will make yourself sick, and you need all your wits and strength to carry you through the ordeal of setting things straight to-morrow. I'll stand by you. I'll go with you if it will be any help."

"No, you shall not; Miss Prillwitz might think you were implicated in the affair. The fault was all mine, and I will not have any one else share the blame; only be on hand at the door, Tib, with an ambulance to carry away the remnants, for I shall be all broken into smithereens by the interview."

I tried to soothe the excited girl, and fancied that she had fallen asleep, when she suddenly began to laugh hysterically.

"I haven't told you who the real prince is," she said. "Aren't you curious to know?"

"Have I ever met him?"

"Yes, indeed; it's Wilhelm the butcher's boy."

"Impossible!"

"Isn't it too absurd for anything? That was the situation which his mother, or foster-mother, preferred to Miss Prillwitz's care. What will Adelaide say now about blue blood telling even in low circ.u.mstances?

There is _blood_ enough about Wilhelm if that is all that is desired.

And won't that foreign prince be just raving when he is introduced to his long-lost brother! But poor Miss Prillwitz!--that's the worst of all. No doubt she has been writing with pride and delight the most glowing letters in reference to Jim's fitness for his high position. How chagrined and mortified the dear old lady will be! Tell me now, Tib, that things were not better as I managed them."

"It does seem as if there must be a mistake somewhere. Still, the truth is the truth, and I believe in telling it, even if the Heavens fall.

This matter is all in the hands of Providence, Winnie, and I believe you got into trouble simply by thinking that you knew better than Providence, and that the world could not move on without you."

"I must say you are rather hard on me, Tib, but perhaps you are right.

Do you suppose that if I hand the tangle I have made right to G.o.d, he will take it from my hands and straighten it out for me? I should think He would have nothing more to do with it, or with me."

"That is not the way our mothers behave when we get our work into a snarl."

This last remark comforted her. She laid her head upon my shoulder and prayed:

"Dear Heavenly Father, I have done wrong, and everything has gone wrong.

Help me henceforth to do right, and wilt Thou make everything turn out right. For thy dear Son's sake, I ask it. Amen."

Then trustfully she fell asleep, her conscience relieved of a great weight, and with faith in a power beyond her own.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE ELDER BROTHER AND MRS. HALSEY'S STRANGE STORY.

[Ill.u.s.tration: {Drawing of child sleeping in bed.}]

Notwithstanding Winnie's protestations to the contrary, I insisted on going with her the next morning when she went to make her confession.

The little alarm-clock made its usual racket, but Winnie slept peacefully, and I was dressed before I could make up my mind to waken her. But I knew how disappointed she would be if she could not make her call on Miss Prillwitz before breakfast, and I wakened her with a kiss, and made her a cup of coffee over the gas while she was dressing. Then we put on our ulsters and hoods, and slipped out of the house just as the rising-bell was ringing.

We knew that Miss Prillwitz was habitually an early riser, or we would not have planned to call at such an hour, but we were surprised to find a cab standing before her door.

"I wonder whether the prince and Jim are just about to leave," Winnie exclaimed. "I did not know that any of the ocean steamers sailed so early in the morning. What if they have gone and we are too late!"

Something was the matter with the door-bell, and just as we were about to knock, the door opened and a stout gentleman came down the steps, and drove away in the carriage. Jim was not with him, and Miss Prillwitz stood inside the door.

Winnie caught her arm and asked, "Was that the prince, the elder brother?"

"No, tear," said Miss Prillwitz, gravely. "Why haf you come, when I write you you must not?"

"Oh Miss Prillwitz, it was because I have something so particular, so important, to tell you. Do not tell me that Jim has gone, and that it is too late!"

"No, tear, Giacomo haf not gone already. I think ze elder brother take him very soon, and we keep our little Giacomo not one leetle longer. Go in ze park by ze bench and I vill come and talk zare wiz you."

We wondered at her unwillingness to let us in, but obeyed her directions, and presently she came out to us with a shawl thrown about her and a knitted boa outside her cap. Even then she did not sit near us, but on a bench at a little distance, having first noted carefully that the wind blew from our direction toward her. All this might have seemed strange to us had we not been so thoroughly absorbed in what Winnie was about to say. The poor child blundered into her story at once, and told it in such broken fashion that Miss Prillwitz never could have understood it but for my explanations. When we had finished, the tears stood in Miss Prillwitz's eyes.