have shrunk from doing so."

"May I inquire, my dear sir," Paul asked, with a timidity of manner
that betrayed how tenderly he felt it necessary to touch on the
subject at all--"may I inquire, my dear sir, what course was taken by
my mother's relatives?"

"I never knew Mr. Warrender, my wife's brother, but he had the
reputation of being a haughty and exacting man. His letters were not
friendly; scarcely tolerable; for he affected to believe I had given
a false address at the west, when I was residing in the middle
states, and he threw out hints that to me were then inexplicable, but
which the letters left with me, by Paul, have sufficiently explained.
I thought him cruel and unfeeling at the time, but he had an excuse
for his conduct."

"Which was, sir--?" Paul eagerly inquired.

"I perceive by the letters you have given me, my son, that your
mother's family had imbibed the opinion, that I was John Assheton, of
Lancaster, a man of singular humours, who had made an unfortunate
marriage in Spain, and whose wife, I believe, is still living in
Paris, though lost to herself and her friends. My kinsman lived
retired, and never recovered the blow. As he was one of the only
persons of the name, who could have married your mother, her
relatives appear to have taken up the idea that he had been guilty of
bigamy, and of course that Paul was illegitimate. Mr. Warrender, by
his letters, appears even to have had an interview with this person,
and, on mentioning his wife, was rudely repulsed from the house. It
was a proud family, and Mildred being dead, the concealment of the
birth of her child was resorted to, as a means of averting a fancied
disgrace. As for myself, I call the all-seeing eye of God to witness,
that the thought of my being a parent never crossed my mind, until I
learned that a John Assheton was the father of Paul, and that the
miniature of Mildred Warrender, that I received at the period of our
engagement, was the likeness of his mother. The simple declaration of
Captain Ducie concerning the family name of his mother, removed all
doubt."

"But, cousin Jack, did not the mention of Lady Dunluce, of the
Ducies, and of Paul's connections, excite curiosity?"

"Concerning what, dear? I could have no curiosity about a child of
whose existence I was ignorant. I did know that the Warrenders had
pretensions to both rank and fortune in England, but never heard the
title, and cared nothing about money that would not pro