tell, how painful it is to live, as it were,
in a dark cloud, knowing nothing either of the future or the past."
The lady looked down sadly upon the ground.
"There are, sometimes," she said, "certainties which are far more
terrible than doubts. Be contented, Wilton, till you hear more: when
you do hear more, you will hear much painful matter; you will have
much to undergo, and you will need courage, determination, and
strength of mind. In the meanwhile, as from your earliest years,
careful, anxious, zealous, eyes have watched over you, marked your
every movement, traced your every step, even while you thought
yourself abandoned, forgotten, and neglected: so shall it be till the
whole is explained to you. Thenceforth you will rule your own
conduct, judge, determine, and act for yourself. We know, we are
sure, that you will act nobly, uprightly, and well in the meanwhile,
and that you will do no deed which at a future period may not befit
any station and any race to acknowledge."
Wilton mused deeply for several moments, and then raising his eyes to
the lady's face, he demanded, in a low tone--
"Answer me only one question more. Am I the son of Lord Sunbury?"
The blood rushed violently up into the lady's countenance.
"Lord Sunbury was never married," she exclaimed--"was he?"
"I know not," replied Wilton--"all I ask is, am I his son? I ask it,
because he has shown me generous kindness, care, and consideration;
and at times I have seen him gazing in my face, when he thought I did
not remark it, as if there were some deeper feelings in his bosom
than mere friendship. Yet I cannot say that he has ever taught me to
look upon myself as his son."
"Your imagination is only leading you into a labyrinth, Wilton,"
replied the personage calling himself Green, "from which you will
find it difficult to extricate yourself. Be contented with what you
know, and ask no more."
"I much wish, and I do entreat," replied Wilton, "that you would give
me an answer to the question I have asked. There might be
circumstances--indeed, I may say, that circumstances are very likely
to occur, in which it would be absolutely necessary for me to know
what claim I have upon the Earl of Sunbury. I have never yet asked
him for anything of importance; but I foresee that the time may soon
come when I may have to demand of him what I would not venture to
demand, did I consider myself but the claimless child of his bounty."
The lady looked at Green, and Green at her, and they paused for