, then he said, "I have thought a good
many times since I ran away that I was wrong in not waiting to hear what
Captain Clinton said. But I had no reason to doubt the story she told
me, and when she proposed that I should go on with this fraud and cheat
Rupert out of his position as heir, it was too horrible, and the thought
that such a woman was my mother was altogether too much to bear. I will
not make such a mistake again, or act in a hurry. My present thought is
that as I have chosen my way I will go on in it. Before, Captain Clinton
and his wife did not know which was their child and loved us both
equally, now that they believe that Rupert is their son and that I was a
fraud, they will have come to give him all their love, and I am not
going to unsettle things again. That is my present idea, and I do not
think that I am likely to change it.

"I shall be glad to know that I need not consider myself that woman's
child, though it would not grieve me, now that I know you, to be sure
that you were my father. But Captain Clinton and his wife were a father
and mother to me up to the day when I ran away, and I could never think
of anyone else in that light."

"Quite natural, quite natural, lad! You have never seen me or heard of
me, and it would be a rum thing if you could all of a sudden come to
care a lot about me. I know that you may be my son, but I don't know
that at present I like you any the more for that than I did before. So
we are quite of one mind over that. But we will be friends, lad, stout
friends!"

"That we will," Edgar said, clasping warmly the hand the other held out
to him. "You have been very kind to me up to now, and now that at any
rate we may be father and son we shall be drawn very close together.
When this campaign is over it will be time to talk again about the
future. I do not think now that I am at all likely to change my mind, or
to let the Clintons know what you have told me; but I need not trouble
about it in any way until then. I was contented before, and I am
contented now. If I have made a fool of myself, as I think I have, I
must pay the penalty. I have much to be thankful for. I had a very happy
time of it until the day I left Cheltenham. I have had a good education,
and I have a first-rate chance of making my way up. I have made friends
of some of the officers of my regiment, and they have promised to push
me on. I had the luck to attract the colonel's attention at El-Teb, and
was am