My mother married in opposition to her parents' desires; they cut her off from the family, and for years there was no communication between them.

At my father's death, my mother made overtures for a reconciliation, which were contemptuously rejected, at length she died.

I was brought up in ignorance of who my grandparents were; and only a few months since, on the death of my father's sister, did I make the discovery.

Here," said he, extending the packet of letters which, the reader will remember once agitated, him so strangely, "here are the letters that passed between my mother and her father." Mr.Balch took up one and read:-- "_Savannah_, 18-- "MADAM,--Permit me to return this letter (wherein you declare yourself the loving and repentant daughter of Bernard Garie) and at the same time inform you, that by your own.
acts you have deprived yourself of all claim to that relation.
In opposition to my wishes, and in open defiance of my express commands, you chose to unite your fortune with one in every respect your inferior.

If that union has not resulted as happily as you expected, you must sustain yourself by the reflection that you are the author of your own misfortunes and alone to blame for your present miserable condition .-- Respectfully yours, "BERNARD GARIE." Mr.Balch read, one after another, letters of a similar purport--in fact, a long correspondence between Bernard Garie and the mother of Mr.Stevens.
When he had finished, the latter remarked, "In addition to those, I can produce my mother's certificate of baptism, her marriage certificate, and every necessary proof of my being her son.