the son of her, so beloved by his boyhood.

"And to thee, perhaps, O my mother!" thought Leonard, with swimming eyes
--"to thee, perhaps, even in thy grave, I shall owe the partner of my
life, as to the mystic breath of thy genius I owe the first pure
aspirations of my soul."

It will be seen that Leonard had not confided to the parson his discovery
of Nora's manuscripts, nor even his knowledge of his real birth; for the
proud son naturally shrank from any confidence that implicated Nora's
fair name, until at least Harley, who, it was clear from those papers,
must have intimately known his father, should perhaps decide the question
which the papers themselves left so terribly vague,--namely, whether he
were the offspring of a legal marriage, or Nora had been the victim of
some unholy fraud.

While the parson still talked, and while Leonard still mused and
listened, their steps almost mechanically took the direction towards
Knightsbridge, and paused at the gates of Lord Lansmere's house.

"Go in, my young friend; I will wait without to know the issue," said the
parson, cheeringly. "Go, and with gratitude to Heaven, learn how to bear
the most precious joy that can befall mortal man; or how to submit to
youth's sharpest sorrow, with the humble belief that even sorrow is but
some mercy concealed."




CHAPTER XIII.