"No."

But he turned his face away from her gaze as he said it.

"When and where did he die?"

"Do not ask me. Oh, Mona, for pity's sake, ask me nothing more. I
cannot, I will not bear this inquisition any longer," the man cried,
in a despairing tone.

The young girl's face blanched suddenly at this, and she turned a wild,
startled look upon her companion, as a terrible suspicion flashed into
her mind.

Had her uncle avenged her mother's wrongs?--was his hand stained with her
father's blood, and was this the reason why he was so fearfully agitated
in speaking of these things?

It was an awful thought, and for a moment, every nerve in her body
tingled with pain. All her strength fled, and she dared not question him
further on that point, for her own sake, as well as his.

There was a dead silence for several moments, while both struggled for
the mastery of their emotions; then Mona said, in a low, awed tone:

"Just one thing more, Uncle Walter--is--his other wife living?"

"I believe so."

"Where is she?"