I think she said on this point, "My poor dear
Roger confuses everything in his head just as in a dream, and I
believe him to be my son, though his statements differ from mine." In
the midst of this curious correspondence trouble once more entered the
old home at Tichborne. Sir Alfred, the younger brother of Roger, was
dead, and the poor half-crazed mother in a solitary lodging in her
loved Paris was left more than ever desolate. Widowed and childless,
she had nothing now but to brood over her sorrows, and cling to the
old dream of the miraculous saving of her eldest born, who, since the
terrible hour of shipwreck--now twelve years past--had given no real
token of existence. The position of affairs at Tichborne was
remarkable, for though there were hopes of an heir to Tichborne, Sir
Alfred had left no child. Should the child--unborn, but already
fatherless--prove to be a girl, or other mischance befall, there was
an end of the old race of Tichborne. The property would then go to
collaterals, and the baronetcy must become extinct. It was under the
weight of these new sorrows that the Dowager Lady Tichborne wrote
pitiable letters to Gibbes, promising money and asking for more
particulars; while enclosing at the same time to the man who thus so
unaccountably kept himself aloof a letter beginning, "My dear and
beloved Roger, I hope you will not refuse to come back to your poor
afflicted mother. I have had the great misfortune to lose your poor
dear father, and lately I have lost my beloved son Alfred. I am now
alone in this world of sorrow, and I hope you will take that into
consideration, and come back." It is hardly surprising that during
this time Mr. Gibbes was constantly urging his mysterious client to
relinquish his disguise. Why not write to the mother and mention some
facts known only to those two which would at once convince her? True,
he had already mentioned "facts," which turned out to be fictions, and
yet the Dowager's faith was unabated. Mr. Gibbes's client was therefore
justified in his answer, that he "did not think it needful." But
Gibbes was pressing, for it happened that the Dowager had in one of
her letters said, "I shall expect an answer from him. As I know his
handwriting, I shall know at once whether it is him." Accordingly we
find the Claimant, under the direction of Mr. Gibbes, penning this:--

"WAGGA-WAGGA, _Jan_. 17 66.
MY DEAR MOTHER,--The delay which has t