to distress her by a communication of his belief, and replied to
her questionings with an obscurity which served to give new force to her
hitherto uncertain surmises. She positively refused, however, to leave
our home; and, clinging to the hope of my final return thither, remained
where I had left her until the terrible fever began its ravages. Her
small stock of money was by this time consumed; her strength both of
mind and body gave way; and Ben, becoming every day more confident that
the simple-hearted Lucy had been betrayed and forsaken, persuaded her at
last to sell her furniture, and with the sum thus raised flee the
infected country before it should be too late. She sailed for Boston in
the same vessel in which Ben shipped before the mast; and on reaching
that port her humble protector took her to the only home he had to
offer.

"There your mother's sad fate found a mournful termination; and you, her
infant child, were left to the mercy of the cruel woman who, but for
consciousness of guilt and her fear of its betrayal, would doubtless
have thrust you at once from the miserable shelter her dwelling
afforded. This guilt consisted in a foul robbery committed by Nan and
her infamous son upon your innocent mother, now rendered, through her
feebleness, an easy prey to their rapacity. The fruits of this vile
theft, however, were not participated in by Nan, whose promising son so
far exceeded her in duplicity and craft that, having obtained possession
of the jewels for the alleged purpose of bartering them away, he
reserved such as he thought proper, and appropriated to his own use the
proceeds of the remainder.

"The antique ring which I now hold in my possession, the priceless relic
of a mournful tragedy, would have shared the fate of the rest but for
its apparent worthlessness. To the luckless Stephen, however, it proved
at last a temporary salvation from the felon's doom which must finally
await that hardened sinner; and to me--ah! to _me_--it remains to be
proved whether the knowledge of the secrets to which it has been the key
will bless my future life or darken it with a heavier curse!
Notwithstanding the information thus gained, and the exciting idea to
which it gave rise, that my child might be still living and finally
restored to me, I could not yet feel any security that these daring
hopes were not destined to be crushed in their infancy, and that my
newly-found treasure might not again elude my eager searc