lifting his eyes towards the ceiling, he said softly in an older tongue,
"And THOU, too, unhappy and perturbed spirit, rest!"

* * * * *

It was nearly dawn when the good Padre wiped the last tears from
Clarence's clearer eyes. "And now, my son," he said, with a gentle
smile, as he rose to his feet, "let us not forget the living. Although
your step-mother has, through her own act, no legal claim upon you, far
be it from me to indicate your attitude towards her. Enough that YOU are
independent." He turned, and, opening a drawer in his secretaire, took
out a bank-book, and placed it in the hands of the wondering boy.

"It was HIS wish, Clarence, that even after his death you should never
have to prove your kinship to claim your rights. Taking advantage of
the boyish deposit you had left with Mr. Carden at the bank, with his
connivance and in your name he added to it, month by month and year by
year; Mr. Carden cheerfully accepting the trust and management of the
fund. The seed thus sown has produced a thousandfold, Clarence, beyond
all expectations. You are not only free, my son, but of yourself and in
whatever name you choose--your own master."

"I shall keep my father's name," said the boy simply.

"Amen!" said Father Sobriente.


Here closes the chronicle of Clarence Brant's boyhood. How he sustained
his name and independence in after years, and who, of those already
mentioned in these pages, helped him to make or mar it, may be a matter