Nothing further was heard from him until there came tidings of his death at sea, in the manner which you recently related.
"Of all this I, of course, knew nothing until ten years later, but what was told me at that time made a deep impression upon me.

Of my mother I could learn absolutely nothing; but for my father, of whom I had no personal knowledge, and concerning whom there seemed so much that was mysterious, I felt a love and reverence almost akin to adoration, and I longed for the day to come when I could read the letter he had left for me and learn the whole secret of that sad life.
"My twenty-first birthday arrived, and the mysterious little packet was placed in my hands.

It contained a few valuable keepsakes and my father's letter, written out of the bitter anguish of a broken heart.

He told the story of his disinheritance, with which you are familiar; but the loss of the property he cared little for in comparison with the loss of his father's love; but even that was as nothing to the sorrow which followed swiftly and which broke his heart.

He stated that, because of this great sorrow, he had placed me in the hands of trusted friends that I should be banished from the false-hearted woman who had borne me and who believed me dead, as it was his wish that neither of us should ever know of the existence of the other." Harold Mainwaring paused for a moment, and Miss Carleton, who had been listening with great interest, exclaimed,-- "And is it possible, Mr.Mainwaring, that, in all these years, you have had no knowledge concerning your mother ?" "It is a fact, Miss Carleton, that I do not even know her name, or whether or not she is living.