'I dropped you a note yesterday, informing you that my father and I had returned to the city.' "He looked at me a moment with a calm, severe, scrutinizing gaze, and then said-- "'Yes, I received your note, and have this moment seen Mr.--, who called upon you.

And he corroborates the instant suspicion I had that your story could not be correct.

He tells me that the man whom you call your father resembles Moses a great deal more than he does the late Mr.Ballantine.So you see, madam, that your story won't go for any thing here.' "There was something cold and sneering in the tone, manner, and expression of Mr.Paralette that completely broke me down.

I saw, in an instant, that my case was hopeless, at least for the time.

I was a lone, weak woman, and during an absence of eight years from my native city, I had grown up from a slender girl into a tall woman, and had, from suffering and privation, been greatly changed, and my countenance marred even since I had attained the age of womanhood.
Under these circumstances, with my father changed so that no one could recognize him, I felt that to make my strange story believed would be impossible.