y in sleep late one evening, just ten days after Hester's arrival. She had gone back to her lodg

d suddenly come on us; and when we heard her fly drive up to the door, Jaquetta cried out almost angrily, "Tor

ch he answered shortly, when all the servants came in, some crying sadly. Fulk read a very few prayers-as

e can produce proofs that she is his daughter, and that her mother only died in February, '36. If these proofs be considered satisfactory by a committee of the House of Lords, then she and Alured Torwood Trevor will be shown to be his only legitimate children. I shall place the matter in the right hands as soon as possible-that is"

of hush of awe-and then some of the maids began sobbing, and the butler tried to

orwood, wha

the haggard look of a man who had travelled all

me hindrance about his leave, so that it had taken all that length of time to bring him. Fulk had left all to be told on his arrival. He had come by the mail-coach, and walked up

against him, while the servants went, and before any one els

e. You can and must bear me

re-but-where? I beg your p

ault St. Pierre

ou are Mrs. Lea! Good heav

known to her that her husband, my father, was not dead, but

tever my father did was igno

d looked from one of us to the o

was what s

d, "You see your brother cannot deny it! You

n up to her, and that we were only to remain there

be decided by the peers. Incidentally, that enquiry will prove what is your position and rank, as well as what may or may not be ours. Any further points depend upon my fa

us four, and one whole household, as it must have seemed, against her. I was outraged and shocked at her defianc

over conventionalities and proprieties. I am the Earl of Trevorsham's only legitimate daug

pped me, as I was go

, "your identity ha

e must needs witne

tness to, Bertr

n old lady who seemed to have known my father, and was very much amazed to find he was not killed in 1814. I did

t absolute legal certainty that you are the child of that marriage alone can entitle you to take rank as his daughter; and, therefore, I am not compelled t

right to ask or not to as

ow this to be so, and Mr. Eagles, who will soon be here, will show it to you in the will if you wish it. Therefore, until the decision is m

" and there at last she began to break down; "but if there is justice in heaven

ine; they called us to bring salts, and help her. Emily shuddered, and put her hands behind her; but Jaque

on't know how we got through that breakfast. But we did, and then I made the housekeepe

nce, and he said he felt that she would have no scruples about t

ours away. There had been something in the old woman that impressed him as genuine, and he had no doubt that she had known and loved our father

ly shocked and overcome by my father's death, to take away Emily. She must be so much in our way. I, who saw her

came Fulk into the room, with his calm, set, determined face. I knew he would rather sp

not break the thing off while there was a shred of hope that he was an earl; but

presence and the comfort it gave him, unless he was secure of Mrs. De

case he retained his position. So, although she took Emily home, she left him cheered and hopeful, admiring her, and believing that she so regarded her daughter's happiness that, if he had enough to sup

us; at least, Uncle George was. Uncle Lupton himself remembered so

tell about that time, and I need not go into the investigation. It was all taken out of our hands, as my brother had said. Perrault came over from Canada, and brought his

ght, and that possession was "nine-tenths," &c. Besides

ow ill he was just then! It was declared water on the brain! I could hardly think about anything else; but they all said it seemed like a mockery, and that he would not bear the tit

d do us any good. All depended on my mother's marriage settlemen

d not touch it, and gave every bit back to us; but it was

tle beyond dear little Alured's struggle for life, and liv

ore of what passed tha

no right; but they had both been christened Torwood; after an old fa

He said where there was no sin there was no shame; and that to treat ourselves as und

een really too expensive. His plan was to keep together, and lay out our capi

f log huts and Robinson Crusoe life, and cows to milk herself; and I reall

her! I heard her and Bertram laughing down below, and wondered

would go with us; or at the very worst, would wait till he

mises of writing, &c., the instant the case was decided. It passed his powers to suppose she could expose her daughter's heart to such a wreck. So he held up, cheerful and hopeful, thinking what a treasure of constancy he had! And when they had built their castle

hardly ever seen him, and could not care for him said it was nonsense, and

live, and that I would come as a stranger, a nursery gove

id Fulk, "if he lives, h

or a child like that! Hester's, wh

uld save him-no care was safe where he was not loved; and I cried very, very bitterly, more than I had done even for my father, or for anything else before; and

my not being asked to go just yet-not while the child lived-I turned round in a really violent, naughty fit, with-"You too, Fulk, I thoug

I rushed away again to the nursery, and sat there, devising plans of disguising myself in

would have been sad enough; and for the feeble little creature, whose life hung on a thread, how was it to be thought of? I fully made up my mind to stay, even if they

d given Emily. She must have packed them up before leaving England, while she was still flattering him. Not a word nor a line was there from Emily hersel

that he must dash over to

, it was very trying. How Bertram did rave at the folly and futility of the expedition! but one comfort was, that Alured was a

I knew she could not wish for his life, and gloated over all the reports she could collect of his weakness. I felt more and more horror of her; God f

alise. I thought he was constant only out of honour and pity, and I did not choose to open my heart to understand his pleadings or accept them as earnest-I was harsh. Oh, how little one knows what one is doing! Too proud to be grateful-that was actually my ca

en for Alured's sake, she could not see why I did not accept-I did begin to regard him as a possible prot

ill now. He was white, and silent, and resolute, and very gentle; all excitement of manner gone. He did not sa

. He did insist upon seeing Emily; but her mother would not leave her, or take her eyes off her, and the

ut the being drawn on with false hopes and promises to expect that she was to belong to him, after all

des when everything was swept away from him here, and he did sit after dinner talking it over in a

her have been his housemaid than have left him to Hester, and I must have looked

or Ursula! she will not see it. Hart told me to-day tha

s better, and I had gone down to dinner cheered. I t

e, and I had left him in a more comfortable sleep. He opened his eyes as we came in, held out his hands more strongly than we thought he could have

e told him he had better sit down. Poor nurse! she must have been glad enough-she had held him all that live-long day! And

e and murmured or cooed a little, and Fulk scarcely spoke or stirred, hour after hour. He had been travelling day and night, but, strange to say, that enforced c

the child alive; and when he looked at him and felt his pu

s, and chary of proper names. No

f to his room, threw himself on his bed, and slept for seven hours in his clothes without so much as moving.

that the boy himself must have that love and trust. Then, too, when he had waked and dressed and come down, the first person he met was Hester, with her hard, g

lk said he should see the lawyers at once about it, and

proper person while he li

e next heir is never

aid "What do you mean?" and Fulk quickly ad

eturning came up to me in the nurs

o our retaining the personal charge of our little brother. Everyone is very kind. Ours is not a c

at it did go for something, that he was known to everybody, an

appointment it was a great sacrifice; but as he said, "There did not seem anything left for him in life but just to try to do what seemed most like one's duty." And then he said it did n

he could get appointed to the agency, if he chose. The house was to be let, but there was a farm to be had about two miles off, with a good house, and he thought of

ong all our old friends and acquainta

d to conceal it, it would always be oozing out, and be supposed disgracefu

Bertram, with such

an it for a moment; indeed, he declared that he should go and prepare for us; for that we should very soon

cles had done before mine; but she did not like to leave me, and Fulk would not encourage it, for we both thought her much

then that it had been somewhere else; but I saw it was best for Baby and still more

h us, and would have been glad to have had us all out of sight for ever, "damaged goods shipped

y said we did. We had plenty of pride and self-respect, and that carried us on; but there was no submission, no notion of taking it religiously. I don't mean that we did not go to church, and in the main try to do right. Any

sympathy but from one another, and e

alienated and disappointed, and we