pression?" asked Julia, turning and
confronting him.

"Aged four years: he was born, I think, in '99,--the year after the
rebellion in Ireland; this brings us nigh the date of his death. One
moment. Let me note this." He hurriedly scratched off a few lines. "St.
Michel; where is St. Michel? It may be a church in some town."

"Or it may be that village in Savoy, at the foot of the Alps."

"True! We shall try there."

"These are without interest; they are notes of sums paid on the road,
or received for his labor. All were evidently leaves of a book and torn
out."

"What is this about Carlotta here?"

"Ah, yes. 'With this I send her all I had saved and put by. I knew he
would ill-treat her; but to take her boy from her,--her one joy and
comfort in life,--and to send him away, she knows not whither, his very
name changed, is more than I believed possible. She says that Niccolo
has been to England, and found means to obtain money from M. B.'"

"Montague Bramleigh," muttered Sedley; but she read on: "'This is too
base; but it explains why he stole all the letters in poor Enrichetta's
box, and the papers that told of her marriage.'"

"Are we on the track now?" cried the old lawyer, triumphantly. "This
Baldassare was the father of the claimant, clearly enough. Enrichetta's
child died, and the sister's husband substituted himself in his place."

"But this Niccolo who married Carlotta," said Julia, "must have been
many years older than Enrichetta's son would have been had he lived."

"Who was to detect that? Don't you see that he never made personal
application to the Bramleighs? He only addressed them by letter, which,
knowing all Enrichetta's story, he could do without risk or danger.
Kelson could n't have been aware of this," muttered he; "but he had some
misgivings,--what were they?"

While the lawyer sat in deep thought, his face buried in his hands,
Julia hurriedly turned over the papers. There were constant references
to Carlotta's boy, whom the old man seemed to have loved tenderly; and
different jottings showed how he had kept his birthday, which fell on
the 4th of August. He was born at Zurich, where Baldassare worked as a
watchmaker, his trade being, however, a mere mask to conceal his real
occupation,--that of conspirator.

"No," said Sedley, raising his head at last, "Kelson knew nothing of it.
I'm certain he did not. It was a cleverly planned scheme throughout;
and all the more so by suffering a whole