dy told you that my
stepfather made an attempt to discover me some years after I had turned
my back on the Scotch school. He took that step out of no anxiety of his
own, but simply as the agent of my father's trustees. In the exercise of
their discretion, they had sold the estates in Barbadoes (at the time
of the emancipation of the slaves, and the ruin of West Indian property)
for what the estates would fetch. Having invested the proceeds,
they were bound to set aside a sum for my yearly education. This
responsibility obliged them to make the attempt to trace me--a fruitless
attempt, as you already know. A little later (as I have been since
informed) I was publicly addressed by an advertisement in the
newspapers, which I never saw. Later still, when I was twenty-one, a
second advertisement appeared (which I did see) offering a reward for
evidence of my death. If I was alive, I had a right to my half share
of the proceeds of the estates on coming of age; if dead, the money
reverted to my mother. I went to the lawyers, and heard from them what
I have just told you. After some difficulty in proving my identity--and
after an interview with my stepfather, and a message from my mother,
which has hopelessly widened the old breach between us--my claim was
allowed; and my money is now invested for me in the funds, under the
name that is really my own."

Mr. Brock drew eagerly nearer to the table. He saw the end now to which
the speaker was tending

"Twice a year," Midwinter pursued, "I must sign my own name to get my
own income. At all other times, and under all other circumstances, I
may hide my identity under any name I please. As Ozias Midwinter, Mr.
Armadale first knew me; as Ozias Midwinter he shall know me to the end
of my days. Whatever may be the result of this interview--whether I win
your confidence or whether I lose it--of one thing you may feel sure:
your pupil shall never know the horrible secret which I have trusted
to your keeping. This is no extraordinary resolution; for, as you know
already, it costs me no sacrifice of feeling to keep my assumed name.
There is nothing in my conduct to praise; it comes naturally out of the
gratitude of a thankful man. Review the circumstances for yourself,
sir, and set my own horror of revealing them to Mr. Armadale out of
the question. If the story of the names is ever told, there can be no
limiting it to the disclosure of my father's crime; it must go back to
the story of Mr