due supposition every appearance that I had witnessed was easily
solved,--unless it were their treatment of me. This, at first, was a
source of hopeless perplexity. Gradually, however, a clue seemed to be
afforded. Welbeck had betrayed astonishment on my first appearance. The
lady's wonder was mingled with distress. Perhaps they discovered a
remarkable resemblance between me and one who stood in the relation of
son to Welbeck, and of brother to the lady. This youth might have
perished on the scaffold or in war. These, no doubt, were his clothes.
This chamber might have been reserved for him, but his death left it to
be appropriated to another.

I had hitherto been unable to guess at the reason why all this kindness
had been lavished on me. Will not this conjecture sufficiently account
for it? No wonder that this resemblance was enhanced by assuming his
dress.

Taking all circumstances into view, these ideas were not, perhaps,
destitute of probability. Appearances naturally suggested them to me.
They were, also, powerfully enforced by inclination. They threw me into
transports of wonder and hope. When I dwelt upon the incidents of my
past life, and traced the chain of events, from the death of my mother
to the present moment, I almost acquiesced in the notion that some
beneficent and ruling genius had prepared my path for me. Events which,
when foreseen, would most ardently have been deprecated, and when they
happened were accounted in the highest degree luckless, were now seen to
be propitious. Hence I inferred the infatuation of despair, and the
folly of precipitate conclusions.

But what was the fate reserved for me? Perhaps Welbeck would adopt me
for his own son. Wealth has ever been capriciously distributed. The mere
physical relation of birth is all that entitles us to manors and
thrones. Identity itself frequently depends upon a casual likeness or an
old nurse's imposture. Nations have risen in arms, as in the case of the
Stuarts, in the cause of one the genuineness of whose birth has been
denied and can never be proved. But if the cause be trivial and
fallacious, the effects are momentous and solid. It ascertains our
portion of felicity and usefulness, and fixes our lot among peasants or
princes.

Something may depend upon my own deportment. Will it not behoove me to
cultivate all my virtues and eradicate all my defects? I see that the
abilities of this man are venerable. Perhaps he will not lightly or
hast