er
passed--the dessert was placed upon the table--Lady Helen entered the
room--she prayed to be excused for her delay--her host rose to introduce
her to Ebenezer.

"Ebenezer!--the deformed!" she exclaimed, in a tone of terror, and,
dashing her hands before her eyes, as he rose before her, she fell back
in hysterics.

"Turn the monster from the house!" cried Francis Dorrington, springing
forward; "my mother cannot endure the sight of such."

"Whom call ye monster, young man?" said Ebenezer, angrily.

"You, wretch!" replied Dorrington, raising his hand, and striking the
cripple to the floor.

"Shame! shame!" exclaimed the company.

"Coward!" cried Maria, starting from her seat.

The cripple, with a rapidity that seemed impossible, sprang to his
feet--he gasped, he trembled, every joint shook, rage boiled in his
veins--he glanced at his insulter, who attempted to repeat the blow--he
uttered a yell of vengeance, he clutched a dessert-knife from the table,
and within a moment it was plunged in the body of the man who had
injured him.

A scream of horror burst from the company. Ebenezer, with the reeking
knife in his grasp, stood trembling from rage, not from remorse. But he
offered not to repeat the blow. A half-consciousness of what he had done
seemed to stay his hand. The sudden scream of the party aroused the Lady
Helen from her real or affected fit. She beheld her son bleeding on the
floor--she saw the vengeful knife in the hands of the cripple. She
screamed more wildly than before--she wrung her hands!

"Monster!--murderer!" she exclaimed, "he has slain--_he has slain his
brother_!"

"_My brother!_" shouted Ebenezer, still grasping the knife in his hand.
"Woman--woman! mother--mother!--who am I? Answer me--who are you?" and
he sprang forward, and held her by the arm. "Tell me," he continued,
"what mean ye--what mean ye? My _brother_--do ye say my _brother_? Art
thou my _mother_? Have I a _mother_? Speak--speak!" and he grasped her
arm more fiercely.

"Monster!" she repeated, "offspring of my shame!--away--away! _He is thy
brother!_ I have shunned thee, wretch, I have disowned thee; but thou
hast carried murder to my bosom!" and, tearing her arm from his grasp,
she threw it round the neck of her wounded son.

The company gazed upon each other. Ebenezer stood for a moment, his eyes
rolling, his teeth rattling together, the knife shaking in his hand. He
uttered a wild cry of agony--he tore the garments from