Saidee did not
move. There was an expression of dismay, even of fear on her face.
"You don't know me!" Victoria said chokingly. "I've grown up, and I must
seem like a different person--but I'm just the same, truly. I've loved
you so, always. You'll get used to seeing me changed. You--you don't
think I'm somebody else pretending to be Victoria, do you? I can tell
you all the things we used to do and say. I haven't forgotten one. Oh,
Saidee, dearest, I've come such a long way to find you. Do be glad to
see me--do!"
Her voice broke. She put out her hands pleadingly--the childish hands
that had seemed pathetically pretty to Stephen Knight.
A look of intense concentration darkened Saidee's eyes. She appeared to
question herself, to ask her intelligence what was best to do. Then the
tense lines of her face softened. She forced herself to smile, and
leaning towards Victoria, clasped the slim white figure in her arms,
holding it tightly, in silence. But over the girl's shoulder, her eyes
still seemed to search an answer to their question.
When she had had time to control her voice and expression, she spoke,
releasing her sister, taking the wistful face between her hands, and
gazing at it earnestly. Then she kissed lips and cheeks.
"Victoria!" she murmured. "Victoria! I'm not dreaming you?"
"No, no, darling," the girl answered, more hopefully. "No wonder you're
dazed. This--finding you, I mean--has been the object of my life, ever
since your letters stopped coming, and I began to feel I'd lost you.
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