"
THE LETTER.
"My Miriam: Your note, through the hands of Mr. Gregory, has been
received--read, noted, pondered over with pain and amazement. The avowal
of your name so uselessly withheld from me, lets in a whole flood of
light, blinding and dazzling, too, on a subject that fills me with
infinite solicitude.
"There have been strange reserves between us that never ought to have
existed, on my part as well as yours. I should have told you that I once
had a half-sister, called Constance Glen--older than myself by many
years--who married during my long absence from our native land a
gentleman much older than herself, an Englishman by the name of Monfort,
and, after giving birth to a daughter, died suddenly. These particulars
I gathered from strangers, but there were many wanting which you can
best supply. I know that this gentleman had a daughter, or daughters, by
an earlier marriage--and I can find no clew to the date of my sister's
marriage--which might in itself determine the possible age of her own
daughter. That this child survived I have painful cause to remember. I
had sustained shipwreck, and was in abeyance for clothes and money both,
when it occurred to me to call on my brother-in-law, present to him my
credentials, and remain a few days at his house as his guest, in the
enjoyment of my sister's society, until my needs could be supplied from
certain resources at a distance.
Pages:
448
449
450
451
452
453
454
455
456
457
458
459
460
461
462
463
464
465
466
467
468
469
470
471
472