ed to do so on recalling the spasm which had agitated
the deceased when he had come to him with the intelligence of the
engagement, and the nervous excitement which Mrs. Raritan displayed on
the morning when he left for town.

This explanation he accepted later--but in the horror of the situation
in which he first found himself his mind declined to act. He had never
known his mother, but her fame he had cherished as one cherishes that
which is best and most perfect of all. And abruptly that fame was
tarnished, as some fair picture might be sullied by a splash and
splatter of mud. And as though that were insufficient, the letters which
devastated his mother's honor brought him a hideous suspicion, and one
which developed into certainty, that his father and the father of the
girl whom he loved were one and the same.

It is not surprising, then, that during the summer months Tristrem was
as lifeless as the air he breathed. His grandfather noticed the
change--he would have been blind indeed had he not--and he urged him to
leave New York. But at each remonstrance Tristrem shook his head with
persistent apathy. What did it matter to him where he was? If New York,
instead of being merely hot and uncomfortable, had been cholera-smitten,
and the prey of pest, Tristrem's demeanor would not have altered. There
are people whom calamity affects like a tonic, who rise from misfortune
refreshed; there are others on whom disaster acts like a soporific, and
he was one of the latter. For three months he did not open a book, the
daily papers were taken from him unread, and if during that time he had
lost his reason, it is probable that his insanity would have consisted
in sitting always with eyes fixed, without laughing, weeping, or
changing place.

But after the hearing in the Surrogate's Court there was a change of
scene. The will was set aside, and the estate, of which Tristrem had
taken absolutely no thought whatever, reverted to him. It was then that
he made it over in its entirety to the institution to which it had been
originally devised; and it was in connection with the disposal of the
property, a disposal which he effected as a matter of course, and as the
only right and proper thing for him to do, that he enjoyed a memorable
interview with his grandfather.

He had not spoken to Mr. Van Norden about the letters, and the old
gentleman, through some restraining sense of delicacy, had hesitated to
question. Besides, he was conf