hief, bearing the sweet name of Isa Gernon. But, good heavens,
my dear mother, how pale you look! Father, what is the matter?"

Captain Norton had risen from his seat and advanced to his wife, who,
pale as death, stood gazing at him with a terrified expression upon her
countenance.

"My dear father, what does all this mean?" exclaimed Brace, with real
anxiety in his tones. "What mystery is there here? Of course I
concluded that the elderly gentleman was Sir Murray Gernon; and I have
some misty recollections of an old family quarrel, and Lady Gernon
running away. There, I have arrived at my cable's end. What is it all?
I trust nothing wrong."

"Speak to him, Ada!" cried Captain Norton, hoarsely. "There must be no
more of this!"

And without another word he hurried from the room; while, perfectly
astounded, Brace turned to his mother for some explanation of what was
to him a profound mystery.

Book 2, Chapter V.

ON THE BYGONE.

"And where had my father been at the time?" said Brace Norton, after
sitting with knitted brows listening to his mother's narrative of the
past.

"France--abroad--to avoid arrest; for his affairs in connection with the
mine were then in a sad state. It was his absence which made matters
wear so suspicious an aspect."

"Suspicious? Yes," said Brace, angrily, "suspicious enough to base
minds! How long was he away?"

"Five, nearly six, months," said Mrs Norton.

"But you never believed this charge, mother? You never thought my
father guilty?"

"Guilty? No!" exclaimed Mrs Norton, proudly. "Your father, Brace, is
the soul of honour, and above suspicion; but matters shaped themselves
most cruelly against him."

"That Gurdon must have had the cross," said Brace, after a thoughtful
pause; "and you say that he obtained his deserts--transported?"

Mrs Norton nodded her head.

"But Lady Gernon's disappearance--what could have become of her? Was it
possible that she was deluded away out of revenge--perhaps with the
cross for a bait--by some one or other of Gurdon's associates, so that
she fell into some trap?"

"My son--my dear boy, pray do not talk of it any more," said Mrs
Norton, sadly. "It is a rock upon which our happiness was nearly
wrecked; but avoid it now. It was right that you should know all after
the strange meeting of to-day; but you see now the reason for your
father's--for my agitation, and for the strong emotion displayed by Sir
Murray Gernon. It is quit