ther. To
remain longer ignorant of my birth, I feel impossible. There is a point
when patience ceases to be a virtue--Hush! I hear footsteps--Ah! Sir
Philip and another in close conversation. Shall I avoid them?--No--Shall
I conceal myself, and observe them?--Curse on the base suggestion!--No--

_Enter_ SIR PHILIP _and_ HANDY, _jun._

_Sir Philip._ That chamber contains the mystery.

_Henry._ [_Aside._] Ah!

_Sir Philip._ [_Turning round._] Observe that portrait. [_Seeing_
HENRY--_starts._] Who's there?

_Handy, jun._ [_To_ HENRY.] Sir, we wish to be private.

_Henry._ My being here, sir, was merely the effect of accident. I scorn
intrusion. [_Bows._] But the important words are spoken--that chamber
contains the mystery. [_Aside.--Exit._

_Handy, jun._ Who is that youth?

_Sir Philip._ You there behold his father--my brother--[_Weeps._]--I've
not beheld that face these twenty years.--Let me again peruse its
lineaments. [_In an agony of grief._] Oh, God! how I loved that man!--

_Handy, jun._ Be composed.

_Sir Philip._ I will endeavour. Now listen to my story.

_Handy, jun._ You rivet my attention.

_Sir Philip._ While we were boys, my father died intestate. So I, as
elder born, became the sole possessor of his fortune; but the moment the
law gave me power, I divided, in equal portions, his large possessions,
one of which I with joy presented to my brother.

_Handy, jun._ It was noble.

_Sir Philip._ [_With suppressed agony._] You shall now hear, sir, how I
was rewarded. Chance placed in my view a young woman of superior
personal charms; my heart was captivated--Fortune she possessed not--but
mine was ample. She blessed me by consenting to our union, and my
brother approved my choice.

_Handy, jun._ How enviable your situation!

_Sir Philip._ Oh! [_Sighing deeply._] On the evening previous to my
intended marriage, with a mind serene as the departing sun, whose
morning beam was to light me to happiness, I sauntered to a favourite
tree, where, lover-like, I had marked the name of my destined bride,
and, with every nerve braced to the tone of ecstasy, I was wounding the
bark with a deeper impression of the name--when, oh, God!----

_Handy, jun._ Pray proceed.

_Sir Philip._ When the loved offspring of my mother, and the woman my
soul adored--the only two beings on earth, who had wound themselves
round my heart by every tie dear to the soul of man, placed themselves
b