a promise which he made your mother."

"My mother! what, have they met since?"

"Yes; your mother went out to India on speculation, passing off as a
single girl, and was very well married there, I was going to say;
however, she committed a very splendid bigamy."

"Good heavens! how totally destitute of principle!"

"Your father asserts that your mother was a freethinker, Japhet; her
father had made her one; without religion a woman has no stay. Your
father was in the up country during the time that your mother arrived,
and was married to one of the council of Calcutta. Your father says that
they met at a ball at Government House. She was still a very handsome
woman, and much admired. When your father recognised her, and was told
that she was lately married to the honourable Mr--, he was quite
electrified, and would have quitted the room; but she had perceived
him, and walking up to him with the greatest coolness, claimed him as an
old acquaintance in England, and afterwards they often met, but she never
adverted to what had passed between them, until the time for his
departure to England on leave, and she then sent for him, and begged that
he would make some enquiries after _you_, Japhet. He did so, and you know
the result. On his return to India he found that your mother had been
carried off by the prevailing pestilence. At that period, your father was
not rich, but he was then appointed to the chief command in the Carnatic,
and reaped a golden harvest in return for his success and bravery. It
appears, as far as I could obtain it from him, that as long as your
mother was alive, he felt no interest about you, but her death, and the
subsequent wealth which poured upon him, have now induced him to find out
an heir, to whom it may be bequeathed.

"Such, Japhet, are the outlines of your father's history; and I must
point out that he has no feelings of affection for you at present. The
conduct of your mother is ever before him, and if it were not that he
wishes an heir, I should almost say that his feelings are those of
dislike. You may create an interest in his heart, it is true: and he may
be gratified by your personal appearance; but you will have a very
difficult task, as you will have to submit to his caprices and fancies,
and I am afraid that, to a high spirit like yours, they will be almost
unbearable."

"Really, sir, I begin to feel that the fondest anticipations are seldom
realised, and almost to wish that I