names of the contracting parties were written, and instantly a mighty
shock seemed to shake him from head to foot.

"Ha! what can this mean?" he exclaimed, in a breathless voice.

His face grew deathly pale. A blur came before his eyes. He rubbed them
to dispel it, and looked again.

"It cannot be possible!" he said, in a hoarse whisper, and actually
panting as if he had been running hard. "I cannot believe my sight, and
yet it is here in black and white! and Mona--Mona, my darling! the
mystery will be solved, and you will be righted at last."

The certificate, as will be readily surmised, was the very one which Mrs.
Montague had examined the previous evening.

When Mona had knocked upon the door, it will be remembered that she
was greatly startled and had upset the table. The accident had caused
the certificate to be thrown upon the floor, with the other things, and
by some means it was pushed beneath the heavy damask curtain and had
escaped Mrs. Montague's eye and memory, when she hastily gathered up the
scattered treasures and rearranged them in the secret compartment of the
table.

Thus it had come into Ray's possession just at a time when it was most
needed and desired.

Regaining his composure somewhat, he read it carefully through from
beginning to end.

"How could it have come to be in such a strange place, and to fall into
my hands?" he said, the look of wonder still on his face. "She--that
woman must have had it in her possession, even as Mona suspected, and by
some mistake or oversight dropped and forgot it. Shall I tell her I have
found it? Shall I return it and then demand it from her?" he questioned,
his innate sense of honor recoiling from everything that seemed
dishonorable. "No," he continued, sternly, "it is not hers--she has no
right whatever to it; it belongs to Mona alone, for it is the proof of
her birthright. I will take it directly to Mr. Corbin, and I will not
even tell Mona until I have first confided in him."

With a resolute purpose written on his fine face, Ray carefully put the
document away in an inner pocket; then donning his coat and hat, quietly
left the house.

The last postal delivery of that same evening brought to Mrs. Richmond
Montague the following anonymous letter:

"MADAME:--The girl in your employ, who calls herself Ruth Richards, is
not what she pretends to be. Her true name is Mona Montague, and she is
compromising herself by secret meetings with a gentleman in