any matters concerning the property, because it would seem
to be benefiting his legal successors, I urged him to go abroad on an
exploring expedition such as he loved, hoping in some way to mitigate
his disappointment or keep him from dwelling upon it. I have probably
not conveyed to you how deep the quarrel was between him and his
brother; but if I have not done so it is not of any great importance.

'When your father had sailed for Central Africa I went out to Spain to
visit my property there, and I took a sea-voyage to Lisbon for the
benefit of my health. There was a young couple in the steerage of the
boat going out to settle in Argentine. They were people of the working
class and very poor, and before we reached Lisbon, on the night of a
storm, the woman gave birth to a child and died, and the father was
left to start life in an unknown country with a helpless infant
dependent upon him. Some kind-hearted people on board the steamer made
up a subscription for him, with the English people's quaint notion that
all grief can be assuaged with food or money; and one night when I was
on deck alone the stewardess brought me the baby to see.

'When we got into Lisbon the following day I offered the man to adopt
the child; and when my maid returned to England I got a Spanish woman
for him, and took him with me to my own estate. He was greeted
everywhere as my son, and allowing myself the luxury of the small
deception, I pretended to myself that he really was mine; but weeks
passed before I ever dreamed of deceiving anybody else on the subject.
It was a letter which my sister-in-law wrote to me which decided me to
stay out in Granada during my husband's two years' absence, and to
announce, in course of time, that I was the mother of a son. The plan
was quite stupidly easy, and everything lent itself to the deception.
The child was fair, and not unlike the Ogilvies, and his father had
given him up entirely to me, on the understanding that he was never to
claim him again. It may seem strange to you, but it is a fact that
after I returned to England there was not the vaguest suspicion in any
one's mind that he was not my own child. When my husband returned from
abroad I was convinced, if I had ever doubted it, that I had acted
wisely. Under the circumstances I should act in the same way again.

'Of course events proved that I had made a mistake; but I had in the
meantime made my husband perfectly happy and my sister-i