We were going down the river, to take ship at New Orleans for France, a
country which your father loved."

"Who was my father?" asked Clara. The woman's words fell upon her ear
like water on a thirsty soil.

"Your father was a Virginia gentleman, and belonged to one of the first
families, the Staffords, of Melton County."

Clara drew herself up unconsciously, and into her face there came a
frank expression of pride which became it wonderfully, setting off a
beauty that needed only this to make it all but perfect of its type.

"I knew it must be so," she murmured. "I have often felt it. Blood will
always tell. And my mother?"

"Your mother--also belonged to one of the first families of Virginia,
and in her veins flowed some of the best blood of the Old Dominion."

"What was her maiden name?"

"Mary Fairfax. As I was saying, your father was a Virginia gentleman. He
was as handsome a man as ever lived, and proud, oh, so proud!--and good,
and kind. He was a graduate of the University and had studied abroad."

"My mother--was she beautiful?"

"She was much admired, and your father loved her from the moment he
first saw her. Your father came back from Europe, upon his father's
sudden death, and entered upon his inheritance. But he had been away