could
desire, and I determined that he should have an equal chance with the
other. I knew that perhaps some day they might find out which was which
by a likeness, but that was not certain, and at any rate you would get a
good education and be well brought up, and you were sure to be provided
for, and when the time should come, if there was still doubt, I could
give you the chance of either having the half or all just as you chose.
It was terrible for me to give you up altogether, but I did it for your
good. I suffered horribly, and the women of the regiment turned against
me. Your father treated me badly, and I had to leave him and come home
to England. But my comfort has all along been that I had succeeded; that
you were being brought up as a gentleman, and were happy and well cared
for."

Edgar sat silent for some time. "How do you know," he asked suddenly,
"that it is Rupert and not I who is the real son?"

"One of the infants," she said, "had a tiny mole no bigger than a pin's
head on his shoulder, and I was sure that I would always know them apart
from that."

"Yes, Rupert has a mark like that," Edgar admitted, for he had noticed
it only a short time before.

"Yes," the woman said quietly. "Mrs. Clinton's child had that mark. It
was very, very small and scarcely noticeable, but as I washed and
dressed them when babies, I noticed it."

"Well, what next?" Edgar asked roughly.

"As I said, my boy,"--Edgar winced as she spoke--"it is for you to
choose whether you will have half or all the property. If I hold my
tongue you will go on as you are now, and they will never know which is
their son. If you like to have it all, to be the heir of that grand
place and everything else, I have only to go and say that my boy had a
mole on his shoulder. There is nothing I would not do to make you
happy."

"And I suppose," Edgar said quietly, "you will want some money for
yourself?"

"I do not wish to make any bargain, if that is what you mean," she said
in an indignant tone. "I know, of course, that you can give me no money
now. I suppose that in either case you would wish to help a mother who
has done so much for you. I don't expect gratitude at present. Naturally
you are upset about what I have told you. Some day when you grow to be a
man you will appreciate better than you can now what I have done for
you, and what you have gained by it."

Edgar sat silent for a minute or two, and then he rose quietly and said,
"I wi