Patrick Brady, who came to America when a boy, is now about forty years of age and comparatively wealthy. He has had no communication with his native place for many years, but now receives from the parish priest a letter which, misdirected, has been long delayed, in which he is informed that his sister’s child has been left an orphan, and is asked to send for her. With kind-hearted impulse, Grady writes to the girl, enclosing money for her passage to America. When Ellen arrives, she proves somewhat older than Grady had expected, twenty-two or three and exceedingly beautiful. Despite Grady’s objections, Ellen insists upon obtaining employment, and upon paying back the money sent for her passage. A suitor soon appears, and Grady to his amazement and horror, finds that he is intensely jealous and that he is desperately in love with his niece. Shortly after, Ellen disappears from the house, and until Mitchell, the suitor, comes seeking her, Grady thinks she has eloped with him. Later Grady encounters the girl by chance. She confesses that she is no relation whatever, though hearing the same name as his niece and that, Grady’s letter being delivered to her, she took advantage of the opportunity to get to America, being herself an orphan and miserably poor, and the niece having been, between the writing of the priest’s letter and the receipt of Grady’s, happily married and with no desire, Ellen is convinced, to leave Ireland. She had not realized that Grady was in love with her, but had run away because she has come to love him, and could no longer endure the false position she held in his house. Ellen’s confession opens for both Grady and herself a path of happiness.