eye was upon him, and restrained his emotions as he proceeded. When he
had done, he lifted his dark gaze upon Catherine's watchful countenance.

"Mother, whether or not we obtain our rights, you will still refuse this
man's charity? I am young--a boy; but I am strong and active. I will
work for you day and night. I have it in me--I feel it; anything rather
than eating his bread."

"Philip! Philip! you are indeed my son; your father's son! And have you
no reproach for your mother, who so weakly, so criminally, concealed
your birthright, till, alas! discovery may be too late? Oh! reproach me,
reproach me! it will be kindness. No! do not kiss me! I cannot bear it.
Boy! boy! if as my heart tells me, we fail in proof, do you understand
what, in the world's eye, I am; what you are?"

"I do!" said Philip, firmly; and he fell on his knees at her feet."
Whatever others call you, you are a mother, and I your son. You are, in
the judgment of Heaven, my father's Wife, and I his Heir."

Catherine bowed her head, and with a gush of tears fell into his arms.
Sidney crept up to her, and forced his lips to her cold cheek. "Mamma!
what vexes you? Mamma, mamma!"

"Oh, Sidney! Sidney! How like his father! Look at him, Philip! Shall we
do right to refuse him even this pittance? Must he be a beggar too?"

"Never beggar," said Philip, with a pride that showed what hard lessons
he had yet to learn. "The lawful sons of a Beaufort were not born to beg
their bread!"

CHAPTER VI.

"The storm above, and frozen world below.

The olive bough
Faded and cast upon the common wind,
And earth a doveless ark."--LAMAN BLANCHARD.

Mr. Robert Beaufort was generally considered by the world a very worthy
man. He had never committed any excess--never gambled nor incurred
debt--nor fallen into the warm errors most common with his sex. He was
a good husband--a careful father--an agreeable neighbour--rather
charitable than otherwise, to the poor. He was honest and methodical
in his dealings, and had been known to behave handsomely in different
relations of life. Mr. Robert Beaufort, indeed, always meant to do what
was right--in the eyes of the world! He had no other rule of action but
that which the world supplied; his religion was decorum--his sense of
honour was regard to opinion. His heart was a dial to which the world
was the sun: when the great eye of the public fell on it, it answered
every purpose that a heart could ans