's marriage can be found, there will be, as you know, considerable
difficulty in establishing my full right to inherit my brother's
property. And my identity as the sister of the late Captain Allen must
also be proved. By the will of my father, which is on record, he
left all of his property to my brother. He, as far as is known, died
intestate. As next of kin, I am the legal heir; but the proof is yet
wanting. My mother's cousin, a Colonel Willoughby, of whom we have
before spoken, came over from England, on the strength of some vague
rumors that reached the family from Jamaica, and was successful in
discovering the only survivor of his uncle's family. She saw it best to
abandon her husband, as you know. My purpose in sending an agent, versed
in legal matters, and used to weighing evidence, is to have such papers
of Colonel Willoughby's as the family possess and will submit for
examination, carefully searched, in the hope that some record may be
found in his hand-writing, sufficiently clear to establish the fact that
my mother was the wife of the elder Captain Allen. So important an event
as that of searching out my mother, and inducing her to flee from her
husband, could hardly have taken place, it seems to me, without evidence
of the fact being preserved. And my hope is, that this evidence, if it
can be found, will prove of great value. So you see, Doctor, that I have
good reasons for wishing to know well the agent who goes abroad with a
matter so vital as this in his hands."

I admitted the importance of a thoroughly reliable man to go upon this
mission, and repeated my faith in Wallingford.

CHAPTER XIII.

I saw Mrs. Montgomery a few days afterwards, and inquired if she
had seen the young associate of Judge Bigelow. She replied in the
affirmative.

"How does he impress you?" I asked.

"Favorably, upon the whole; though," she added with one of her meaning
smiles, "I can't help thinking all the time about the cool, calculating,
resolute way in which he went about disentangling himself from an
unfortunate love affair. I look at his calm face, over which you rarely
see a ripple of feeling go, and ask myself, sometimes, if a heart really
beats within his bosom."

"There does; a true, large, manly heart, full of deep feeling; you may
be sure of this, madam," I answered, with some warmth.

"I will not gainsay your words, Doctor. I trust for his sake that it may
be so."

"Leaving out the heart matter, and