"I WOULD LAY DOWN MY LIFE TO SERVE YOU!" SAID TEDDY.

Teddy Darrell had had some adventures in his day, and was not given to nerves, so he did not let the shock of his discovery overcome him.

The thought flashed over him that some drunken woman had crept into the cab, unknown to the driver, and fallen into a troubled slumber.

The flaring lanterns on the outside of the cab did not afford much light, so Teddy struck a match and held it over the face of his unknown companion.

Then indeed he had a shock much greater than the first one.

The lighted match fell from his hand and he recoiled with a startled cry.

"Good heavens! what a likeness!"

He sunk upon the opposite seat, actually trembling with surprise and emotion.

In the pale and lovely face lying unconscious on the cushions the young man had recognized a haunting likeness to one he had loved very dearly, and whose tragic fate, six months ago, had thrilled him with unutterable horror. Although other lovers had succeeded Kathleen in Teddy's young, impressionable heart, he had never ceased to regret the fact that she had rejected him.

"The sweetest, loveliest girl in all the world!" he had always thought of bonny, dark-eyed Kathleen.

And he trembled with pain when he saw in the poor street waif, as he believed her, the awful likeness to his lost loved one.

Kathleen, who was beginning to recover consciousness, moaned and stirred, half lifting herself toward the young man.

He bent toward her kindly and said:

"Are you ill, madame?"

That voice! It was one from her happy past. It stirred a pulse in Kathleen's heart, and she turned toward him wildly, her dark eyes opening wide upon his anxious face.

The flaring lights from some place of amusement shone into the cab and showed her his features.

"Teddy Darrell!" she murmured, in a feeble tone of amazement.

"Good heavens! you know me!" he exclaimed. "Who are you?"

She held out her white hands to him with an entreating gesture.

"Don't you know me? Don't you remember Kathleen Carew?" she cried, faintly.

"Kathleen Carew is dead!" he answered, blankly.

"No, no; she lives! It was a mistake. I was in a trance, and I escaped from my coffin and ran away into the woods," whispered the girl, rapidly regaining the strength to speak.

"Good heavens! So that's what became of you!" cried Teddy Darrell. He seized her little white hands and pressed them rapturously. "Welcome back to life, my dear girl!" he laughed, happily, and she exclaimed:

"You know me—you believe me?"

"Of course I do," he replied, joyously. "But how came you to be here in this cab, alone and unconscious?"

"I do not know," she answered, in a puzzled voice. "I went home, and mamma told me my father was dead, and that he had disinherited me in his will. Then she denied my identity, and the last thing I remember I fell fainting on the carpet. Oh, Mr. Darrell! will you do me one favor? Take me to my dear friend, Helen Fox."

"Helen Fox is in Europe," he replied, reluctantly.

"In Europe? Oh, good heavens! what am I to do, then? Helen is the only friend I have to turn to in my distress!" exclaimed the young girl, clasping her beautiful hands in the keenest despair.

Teddy Darrell looked at her reproachfully.

"You seem to forget me, Miss Carew. But I would lay down my life to serve you!" he exclaimed, impetuously.

She glanced up and met his eyes. They wore the most killing expression of devotion—and Teddy's dark eyes could be very expressive when he chose.

Kathleen blushed vividly, and answered:

"I—I—did not know—if I might call you my friend or not. Some men—might not like a young girl after—after——" She paused in confusion.

"After she rejected him," finished Teddy, coolly. "Well, I hope I am not as mean as that, Miss Carew. I shall be only too happy to be your friend and brother if you will allow me."

"You are too good to me," she whispered, gratefully, as she held out her little white hand to him, adding, sadly: "'A friend in need is a friend indeed,' and I am poor in everything now, with not even a shelter for my head."

"Don't say that," exclaimed the sympathetic young fellow, with a break in his voice. "I am going to take you to my cousin, one of the kindest ladies in the world, if you will allow me to do so;" and, pulling the check-string, he gave the driver orders not to proceed to the opera house, but to the street where his cousin lived.

Kathleen acquiesced gratefully in his decision. Her heart went out warmly to this cordial friend, and she regretted in her heart that she had ever laughed with Helen Fox over the young man's flirting proclivities.