.

"(Witness) THOMAS HOYLE."

There was nothing more inside this locket, except two little wisps of
hair tied with gold thread, and the miniature upon ivory, bearing on the
back some anagram, probably that of the artist.

Already had I passed through a great many troubles, changes, chances,
and adventures which always seem strange (when I come to look back), but
never surprised me at the moment. Indeed, I might almost make bold to
pronounce that not many persons of my age and sex have been visited,
wholly against their own will, by such a series of incidents, not to say
marvelous, but at any rate fairly to be called unusual. And throughout
them perhaps it will be acknowledged by all who have cared to consider
them, that up to the present time I did not fail more than themselves
might have done in patience. And in no description of what came to
pass have I colored things at all in my own favor--at least so far as
intention goes--neither laid myself out to get sympathy, though it often
would have done me a world of good.

But now I am free to confess that my patience broke down very sadly.
Why, if what was written on that vellum was true, and Major Hockin
correct as well, it came to no less than this, that my own dear father
was a base-born son, and I had no right to the name I was so proud of!
If, moreover, as I now began to dream, that terrible and mysterious
man did not resemble my father so closely without some good reason,
it seemed too likely that he might be his elder brother and the proper
heir.

This was bad enough to think of, but an idea a thousandfold worse
assailed me in the small hours of the night, as I lay on Mrs. Strouss's
best bed, which she kept for consuls, or foreign barons, or others whom
she loved to call "international notorieties." Having none of these now,
she assigned me that bed after hearing all I had to say, and not making
all that she might have done of it, because of the praise that would
fall to Mrs. Busk.

However, she acknowledged that she knew nothing of the history of "the
poor old lord." He might have carried on, for all she could tell, with
many wives before his true one--a thing she heard too much of; but
as for the Captain not being his true son and the proper heir to the
peerage, let any one see him walk twice, and then have a shadow of a
doubt about it! This logic pleased but convinced me not, and I had to go
to bed in a very unhappy, restless, and comfortless state of m