ame in he rang the bell as if for family prayers, and she had
only asked one or two questions, which he answered shortly, when all
the servants came in, some crying sadly. Fulk read a very few
prayers--as much as he had voice for, and then, as all stood up, he had
to clear his voice, but he spoke firmly enough.

"It is right that you all should know that a grave doubt has arisen as
to my position here. Lord Trevorsham had every reason to believe his
first wife had perished by the hands of the Red Indians long before he
married my mother. What he did was done in entire ignorance--no breath
of blame must light on him. This lady alleges that she can produce
proofs that she is his daughter, and that her mother only died in
February, '36. If these proofs be considered satisfactory by a
committee of the House of Lords, then she and Alured Torwood Trevor
will be shown to be his only legitimate children. I shall place the
matter in the right hands as soon as possible--that is" (for she was
glaring at him), "as soon as the funeral is over. Until that decision
is made I request that no one will call me by the title of him who is
gone; but I shall remain here to take care of my little brother, whose
guardian my father wished me to be; and for the present, at least, I
shall make no change in the establishment."

I think everyone held their breath: there was a great stillness over
all--a sort of hush of awe--and then some of the maids began sobbing,
and the butler tried to say something, but he quite broke down; and
just then a troubled voice cried out--

"Torwood, Torwood, what is this?"

And there we saw Bertram in the midst of us, with the haggard look of a
man who had travelled all night, and a dismayed air that I can never
forget.

He had been quartered at Belfast, and we had written to him the day
after my father's illness, to summon him home, but there were no
telegraphs nor railways; and there had been some hindrance about his
leave, so that it had taken all that length of time to bring him. Fulk
had left all to be told on his arrival. He had come by the mail-coach,
and walked up from the Trevorsham Arms, where he had been told of our
father's death; and so had let himself in noiselessly, and was standing
in the dining-room door, hearing all that Fulk said!

Poor fellow! Jaquetta flung herself on him, hiding her face against
him, while the servants went, and before any one else could speak,
Hester stood forth