disaster which had befallen their daughter was but too likely to
disincline her to receive his addresses, or any man's addresses,
favorably. To their surprise, they proved to be wrong. The young
lady was touched by the simplicity and the delicacy with which
her lover urged his suit. She had lived among worldly people.
This was a man whose devotion she could believe to be sincere.
They were married.

Had no unusual circumstances occurred? Had nothing happened which
the General had forgotten? Nothing.

X.

IT is surely needless that I should stop here, to draw the plain
inferences from the events just related.

Any person who remembers that the shawl in which the infant was
wrapped came from those Eastern regions which were associated
with the French nobleman's diplomatic services--also, that the
faults of composition in the letter found on the child were
exactly the faults likely to have been committed by the French
maid--any person who follows these traces can find his way to the
truth as I found mine.

Returning for a moment to the hopes which I had formed of being
of some service to Michael, I have only to say that they were at
once destroyed, when I heard of the death by drowning of the man
to whom the evidence pointed as his father. The prospect looked
equally barren when I thought of the miserable mother. That she
should openly acknowledge her son in her position was perhaps not