haise when they stopped to change horses at the last
stage, when it was dark, and no one could perceive it, and walk with the
infant until she could find some conveyance to my house.

"`This was done, the child was brought to your grandmother, who is now
in heaven, and then your aunt made known to us what she had discovered,
and whose child it was. I was very angry, and if I had not been laid up
at the time with the rheumatism, would have gone right into Sir
Alexander's room, and told him who the infant was, but I was over-ruled
by your grandmother and your aunt, who then went away and walked to the
hall. So we agreed that we would say exactly what Miss Barbara said to
us when she came over to us on the next day.'"

"Well, then, Lionel, I have to congratulate you on being the son of a
gentleman, and the nephew of Lady R--. I wish you joy with all my
heart," said I, extending my hand.

"Thank you, Miss Valerie. It is true that I am so, but proofs are still
to be given; but of that hereafter."

"Lionel, you have been standing all this while. I think it would be
most uncourteous if I did not request you to take a chair." Lionel did
so, and then proceeded with the old man's narrative.

"`About a month after this, Sir Richard R--came down, and after three
weeks was accepted by Miss Barbara. It was a hasty match everyone
thought, especially as the news of Mrs Dempster's death had, as it was
reported, been received by letter, and all the family had gone into
mourning. Poor old Sir Alexander never held up his head afterwards, and
in two months more he was carried to the family vault. Your aunt then
came home to us, and as you have heard, married poor Green, who was
killed in a poaching business about three months after his marriage.
Then came your poor grandmother's death of a quinsy, and so I was left
alone with your aunt Green, who then took charge of the child, who had
been christened by the name of Lionel Bedingfield. There was some talk
about the child, and some wonders whose it could be; but after the death
of Sir Alexander, and Miss Barbara had gone away with her husband,
nothing more was thought or said about it. And now, boy, I've talked
enough for to-day, to-morrow I'll tell you the rest of the history.

"Perhaps, Miss Valerie, you think the same of me, and are tired with
listening," observed Lionel.

"Not at all; and I have leisure now which I may not have another time;
besides your visits, if so fr