disgraced? No; if that be Matilda's child, tell me, and I
will bear, as man may do, the last calamity which the will of Heaven may
inflict. If, as I have all reason to think, the tale be an imposture,
speak and give me the sole comfort to which I would cling amidst the
ruin of all other hopes."

"Verily," said Arabella, with a kind of musing wonder in the tone of her
softened voice; "verily, has a man's heart the same throb and fibre as a
woman's? Had I a child like that blue-eyed wanderer with the frail form
needing protection, and the brave spirit that ennobles softness, what
would be my pride! my bliss! Talk of shame--disgrace! Fie--fie--the more
the evil of others darkened one so innocent, the more cause to love and
shelter her. But--I--am childless! Shall I tell you that the offence
which lies heaviest on my conscience has been my cruelty to that girl?
She was given an infant to my care. I saw in her the daughter of that
false, false, mean, deceiving friend, who had taken my confidence, and
bought, with her supposed heritage, the man sworn by all oaths to me. I
saw in her, too, your descendant, your rightful heiress. I rejoiced in
a revenge on your daughter and yourself. Think not I would have foisted
her on your notice! No. I would have kept her without culture, without
consciousness of a higher lot; and when I gave her up to her grandsire,
the convict, it was a triumph to think that Matilda's child would be
an outcast. Terrible thought! but I was mad then. But that poor convict
whom you, in your worldly arrogance, so loftily despise--he took to his
breast what was flung away as a worthless weed. And if the flower keep
the promise of the bud, never flower so fair bloomed from your vaunted
stem! And yet you would bless me if I said, 'Pass on, childless man; she
is nothing to you!'"

"Madam, let us not argue. As you yourself justly imply, man's heart
and woman's must each know throbs that never are, and never should be,
familiar to the other. I repeat my question, and again I implore your
answer."

"I cannot answer for certain; and I am fearful of answering at all, lest
on a point so important I should mislead you. Matilda's child? Jasper
affirmed it to me. His father believed him--I believed him. I never had
the shadow of a doubt till--"

"Till what? For Heaven's sake speak."

"Till about five years ago, or somewhat more, I saw a letter from
Gabrielle Desmarets, and--"

"Ah! which made you suspect, as I do,