right in this, that the secret of
his birth could not be concealed from him.

His poor mother had never divulged it to him, never meant him to know
that, the knowledge of which, she thought, would only make him unhappy;
but she had told no falsehoods, put forth no false showing to hide it
irrecoverably from him.

She was known among her poor Italian neighbors as Signora Valeria, and
supposed by them to be the widow of that handsome young Pole to whom they
had seen her married, and from whom they had seen her torn by her father,
some years before. Of the Duke of Hereward, her second husband, and of
her divorce from him, they knew nothing. But she was known to her
father-confessor, to her news-agent, and later to her son, as Valerie de
la Motte Scott, for though no longer entitled to bear the latter name,
she had tacitly allowed it to cling to her.

Now as to how the boy discovered the secret that was designed to be
concealed from him.

When with childish curiosity he had inquired, his mother had told him
that he had lost his father in infancy; and the boy understood that the
loss was by death: but as time passed, and the lad questioned more
particularly concerning his parentage, his mother, in repeating that he
had lost his father in infancy, added that the loss had been attended
with distressing circumstances, and begged him to desist in his
inquiries. This only stimulated the interest and curiosity of the
youth, and kept him on the _qui vive_ for any word, or look, or
circumstance that might give him a clew to the mystery. And thus it
followed that with a mother so simple and unguarded as Valerie, and a
son so cunning and watchful as Archibald, the secret she wished to keep
be soon discovered. But he kept his own counsel for the sake of gaining
still more information. And, at length, the full revelation and
confirmation of all that he had suspected came to him in a manner and
by means his mother had never foreseen or provided against.

Valerie had made a will leaving all her property to her son, and
appointing the Duke of Hereward as his guardian. After her death, all her
papers and other effects had to be overhauled and examined and her son
took care to read every paper that he was free to handle. Among these was
a copy of the will of the late Waldemar de Volaski, by which he
bequeathed to Valerie de la Motte Scott, Duchess of Hereward, all his
personal property.

Here was both a revelation and a mystery! Valer