"I am your mother's son! She was your wife, you say; yet she never
bore your name! She was your wife; yet her son and yours bears her
maiden name! She was your wife; yet she perished miserably in her
early youth; and undeserved reproach is suffered to rest upon her
memory! Oh, sir! if indeed you were her husband and my father, as
you claim to be, explain these things before I give you my hand! for
when I give my hand, honor and respect must go with it," said
Ishmael in a grave, sweet, earnest tone.

"Is it possible that Hannah has never told you? I thought she would
have told you everything, except the name of your father."

"She told me everything that she could tell without violating the
oath of secrecy by which she was hound; but what she told me was not
satisfactory."

"Sit down then, Ishmael, sit down; and though to recall this woeful
history will be to tear open old wounds afresh, I will do so; and
when you have heard it, you will know how blameless we both--your
mother and myself--really were, and how deep has been the tragedy of
my life as well as hers--the difference between us being that hers
is a dead trouble, from which she rests eternally, while mine is a
living and life-long sorrow!"

Ishmael again dropped into his chair and gave undivided attention to
the speaker.

And Mr. Brudenell, after a short pause, commenced and gave a
narrative of his own eventful life, beginning with his college days,