she murmured forth, "Well done! well done!" followed by
a name that was not mine.

When I related to her the documents that he had shown me to convince me
that he was no impostor, she said, "Ralph, it is enough--it is of little
consequence now what name you may give him. _He is my son_!"

"And my half-brother?"

"Oh no, no, young sir! Disgraced as he has been, a nobler blood than
that of Rattlin flows in his veins. Degraded, disgraced as he is,
neither on the side of the father nor of the mother need he blush for
his parentage. But you are his sworn enemy--I can now listen more
calmly to what you have to say. But, graceless as he is, he should not
have denied his own mother."

"Mrs Causand," said I, in a tone of voice more cold than any with which
I had yet addressed her, "it seems that you have, and that most
unreasonably too, taken part against me. In no point have I sinned
against you or yours. I have all along been the attacked, the aggrieved
party. I will no longer offend your ears, or wring your heart, by a
recapitulation of your son's delinquencies. He has done me much wrong;
he is contemplating more--only place me in a situation to do myself
justice, and silence on the past shall seal my lips for ever; but know
that he has stolen all my documents, and intends passing himself to
whomever may be my father, as his legitimate son, as myself."

"This must not be--foolish, mad, wicked boy! That I, his mother, must
stand up his accuser! must act against him as his enemy! but I have long
ago discarded him--almost cursed him. Oh, Ralph, Ralph! had he been but
like you--but, from his youth upwards, he has been inclined to
wickedness--no fortune could have supplied his extravagance--he has
exhausted even a mother's love. I refused him money, and he stole my
papers--I never dreamt of the vile use that he intended to put them to.
Spare me for a little while, and I will let you know all; but should you
once get his neck under your heel, oh! tread lightly on my poor
William!" She had evidently another and a most severe attack of her
complaint, which passed rapidly over like the rest; but she now had, for
the first time in my observation, recourse to her medicines. When
sufficiently recovered, she continued:

"Ralph, neither you nor any one else shall know my private history. It
is enough for you to understand that I was almost from infancy destined
to associate with the greatest of the sterner sex. Early