u do really know?"

"Of course not," said Claude, with his usual frankness. "I'll tell
you the whole story. There isn't much of it. I always believed myself
to be the son of Jean Motier, until a short time ago. We lived near
Boston, a place that you, perhaps, have heard of. He was always
careful to give me the best education that could be had in a colony,
and particularly in all the accomplishments of a gentleman. We were
both very happy, and lived very well, and I called him father, and he
called me son; and so things went on until a few weeks ago. I went
off hunting with some British officers, and on my return found the
old man dying. The shock to me was a terrible one. At that time I
believed that it was my father that I was losing. What made it worse,
was the evident fact that there was something on his mind, something
that he was longing to tell me; but he could not collect his
thoughts, and he could only speak a few broken words. He kept
muttering, '_Mon tresor_, _Mon tresor_;' but I thought it was merely
some loving words of endearment to me, and did not imagine what they
really meant. Still I saw that there was something on his mind, and
that he died without being able to tell it."

Claude paused for a moment, quite overcome by his recollections, and
Mimi's large dark eyes filled with tears in her deep sympathy with
his sorrows.

"Well," said Claude, regaining his composure with an effort, "I'll go
on. As soon as he was buried I began to search the papers, partly to
see how the business was, and how I was situated in the world; but
more for the sake of trying to find out what this secret could be.
There was an old cabinet filled with papers and parcels, and here I
began my search. For a long time I found nothing but old business
letters and receipts; but at last I found some religious books--with
a name written in them. The name was Louise de Montresor. Well, no
sooner had I seen this than I at once recollected the words of my
father, as I supposed him, which I thought words of
endearment--Montresor, Montresor. I saw now that it was the name of a
person--of a woman; so this excited me greatly, and I continued the
search with greater ardor.

"After a while I came to a drawer in which was a quantity of gold
coins, amounting to over a hundred guineas. In this same drawer was a
gold watch; on the back of it were engraved the letters L. D. M.,
showing that it was evidently the property of this Louise de
Montres