I held off till this morning, thinking it wasn't worth my while to make any inquiries about the matter; but I couldn't get it out of my head somehow; and it ended by my answering your advertisement.

I am an old man, you see, without a creature belonging to me; and it might be a comfort to me to meet with some one of my own flesh and blood.

The bit of money I may leave behind me when I die won't be much; but it might as well go to my son's child as to a stranger." "If your son's child can be found, you will discover her to be well worthy of your love.

Yes, though she has done me a cruel wrong, I believe her to be all that is good and pure and true." "What is the wrong that she has done you ?" Gilbert told Jacob Nowell the story of his engagement, and the bitter disappointment which had befallen him on his return from Australia.

The old man listened with every appearance of interest.