her hands, and educated me, but never loved me," said
Francis.

"I would not believe that woman on her oath," said Mr. Dempster; "and I
know her motive. She wanted to get something out of your cousins, and
for that purpose invented this confession. That would never shake my
belief in the spirits. Look at the way in which those names were
spelled out--you were convinced of the truth of it at the time."

"My dear sir," said Francis, "I certainly heard and saw a great many
things which I could not explain. They seemed to echo my own thoughts
marvellously correctly, but whenever I was at fault, they, too, were
misinformed. Elsie had been suspicious beforehand that I was not Henry
Hogarth's son. Mrs. Peck's confession was consistent and probable; she
stuck to it as being true, to her dying day. I went to see her on her
death-bed, and she declared that, as she hoped for forgiveness, I was
not her child or Mr. Hogarth's; so that, though I never got any clue to
my real parents--for she did not know my name, and the advertisements
which I put into American papers were never answered--thirty-five years
being a lapse of time in which such matters cannot be traced--I am
morally certain that I am not Jane's cousin, and consequently that the
spirit was wrong. It might be mesmerism, or extraordinary quickness of
sight; for though I tried to pass over the letters which spelled out
the names, a very practised eye might observe an infinitesimal
hesitation over the particular letter;--but of one thing I am certain,
that if Henry Hogarth had been there in the spirit, he would have been
able to tell me both that he was not my father, and also whose son I
really was, which information I wished to obtain."

"But did not the spirit say you were to have happiness after a time,"
said Mr. Dempster, triumphantly, "and have you not got it?"

"Certainly I have; and if it had any hand in bringing it about I am
very grateful to it," said Francis, looking at his wife with pride and
pleasure; "but I think we owe our happiness very much to each other.
The will, which was as unjust and absurd a one as could have been made,
indirectly did us service. I am quite sure that but for the singular
relations in which I was placed I never could have known Jane, and
could not have loved her."

"If Elsie had been left 20,000 pounds I never should have dared to have
looked up to her," said Brandon; "and what a loss that would have been
to her, not speak of myse