to Ellice. Did you know this?"

"I have heard only of the jewels."

"As I supposed, the money was squandered before you could
recollect."

"I know that we were reduced to poverty, by the failure of some
banking house in Paris. I was old enough when it occurred, to
remember ever afterward, the dismay and distress it caused. My
father no doubt placed my mother's money there for safety."

"I wrote one long, final letter when I sent the checks for the
money, and I told Ellice I wished never to see, never to hear from
her again. I told her also, I had only one wish concerning her, and
that was, that I might be able to forget her so completely, that if
we should meet in the Last Judgment, I could not possibly know her.
I assured her she need expect nothing at my death; as I had taken
good care that my estate should not fall into the clutches of--her--
'exiled scion of a noble house.' Now do you consider that she has
any claim on me?"

"You must not ask me to sit in judgment on my parents."

"You shall decide a question of business facts. I provided liberally
for her once; can you expect me to do so again? Has she any right to
demand it?"

"Having defied your parental wishes, she may have forfeited a
daughter's claim; but as a heart-broken sufferer, you cannot deny