“So you loved Marian—­I even judged so when I saw you labor hardest of all for the apprehension of the criminal.  Oh, many loved her as much as you!  Colonel Thornton, Dr. Weismann, Judge Gordon, Mr. Barnwell, all adored her!  Ah! she was worthy of it.”

“No more of that, dear Edith, it will overcome us both; but tell me if you will give me your little girl?”

“Dear Thurston, your proposal is as strange and unusual as it is generous.  I thank you most sincerely, but you must give me time to look at it and think of it.  You are sincere, you are in earnest, you mean all you say.  I see that in your face; but I must reflect and take counsel upon such an important step.  Go now, dear Thurston, and return to me at this hour to-morrow morning.”

Thurston pressed her hand and departed.

The same day Edith had a visit from Mrs. Waugh, Miss Thornton and other friends.  And after consulting with them upon the proposal that had been made her, she decided to leave Miriam in the joint guardianship of Mrs. Waugh and Thurston Willcoxen.

And this decision was made known to Thurston when he called the next morning.

A few days after this Edith passed to the world of spirits.  And Thurston took the orphan child to his own heart and home.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

IN MERRY ENGLAND.

When Marian recovered consciousness she found herself on board ship and a lady attending to her wants.  When she was at last able to ask how she came there the lady nurse told the following story: 

“On the evening of Holy Thursday, about the time the storm arose, our vessel lay to opposite a place on St. Mary’s coast, called Pine Bluff, and the mate put off in a boat to land a passenger; as they neared the shore they met another boat rowed by two men, who seemed so anxious to escape observation, as to row away as fast as they could without answering our boat’s salute.  Our mate thought very strange of it at the time; but the mysterious boat was swiftly hid in the darkness, and our boat reached the land.  The mate and his man had to help to carry the passenger’s trunks up to the top of the bluff, and a short distance beyond, where a carriage was kept waiting for him, and after they had parted from him, they returned down the bluff by a shorter though steeper way; and just as they reached the beach, in the momentary lull of the storm, they heard groans.  Immediately the men connected those sounds with the strange boat they had seen row away, and they raised the wick in the lantern, and threw its light around, and soon discovered you upon the sands, moaning, though nearly insensible.  They naturally concluded that you had been the victim of the men in the boat, who were probably pirates.  Their first impulse was to pursue the carriage, and get you placed within it, and taken to some farmhouse for assistance; but a moment’s reflection convinced them that such a plan was futile, as it was impossible to overtake the carriage.  There was also no house near the coast.  They thought it likely that you were a stranger to that part of the country.  And in the hurry and agitation of the moment, they could devise nothing better than to put you in the boat, and bring you on board this vessel.  That is the way you came here.”