trust that when I tell you
all I do know, you will see that I have acted for the best in the
matter. It has been my study and my prayer to do so."

Mr. Sewell then rose, and unlocking the cabinet, of which we have before
made mention, in his apartment, drew forth a very yellow and time-worn
package of papers, which he untied. From these he selected one which
enveloped an old-fashioned miniature case.

"I am going to show you," he said, "what only you and my God know that I
possess. I have not looked at it now for ten years, but I have no doubt
that it is the likeness of your mother."

Moses took it in his hand, and for a few moments there came a mist over
his eyes,--he could not see clearly. He walked to the window as if
needing a clearer light.

What he saw was a painting of a beautiful young girl, with large
melancholy eyes, and a clustering abundance of black, curly hair. The
face was of a beautiful, clear oval, with that warm brunette tint in
which the Italian painters delight. The black eyebrows were strongly
and clearly defined, and there was in the face an indescribable
expression of childish innocence and shyness, mingled with a kind of
confiding frankness, that gave the picture the charm which sometimes
fixes itself in faces for which we involuntarily make a history. She was
represented as simply attired in a white muslin, made low in the neck,
and the hands and arms were singularly beautiful. The picture, as Moses
looked at it, seemed to stand smiling at him with a childish grace,--a
tender, ignorant innocence which affected him deeply.

"My young friend," said Mr. Sewell, "I have written all that I know of
the original of this picture, and the reasons I have for thinking her
your mother.

"You will find it all in this paper, which, if I had been providentially
removed, was to have been given you in your twenty-first year. You will
see in the delicate nature of the narrative that it could not properly
have been imparted to you till you had arrived at years of
understanding. I trust when you know all that you will be satisfied with
the course I have pursued. You will read it at your leisure, and after
reading I shall be happy to see you again."

Moses took the package, and after exchanging salutations with Mr.
Sewell, hastily left the house and sought his boat.

When one has suddenly come into possession of a letter or paper in which
is known to be hidden the solution of some long-pondered secret, of t