“Yes, sir; and it was a somewhat romantic affair. They had an uncle who was very wealthy, and when he died it was found that he had made a very singular will. He divided his fortune equally between them, but expressed a wish that they should unite it again by marriage; indeed, he made the possession of it conditional, and in this way. My father was about twenty, my mother seventeen, at the time of his death. Both were to come into their share of the property at once, but if either married some one else before my mother reached the age of twenty-five, he or she would forfeit that portion and it should go to the other. If both refused to carry out the conditions of the will and married contrary to his wishes, or remained single after my mother, who was the younger, reached the age of twenty-five, the whole fortune was to be made over to a bachelor cousin of the testator, and who was also a very singular character.” “That was an exceedingly strange will,” observed Mr. Huntress. “Very, though it was not more eccentric than the man who made it; but my father and mother chose to fulfill the conditions of the will; thus the property was all kept in the family.” “And are you their only child?” “Yes, sir. I never had either brother or sister.” “It is very strange,” murmured Mr. Huntress, musingly. Everet Mapleson regarded him curiously. “You are thinking of my resemblance to Mr. Geoffrey Huntress,” he said, somewhat stiffly, after a brief pause. “Yes, I am.” “Surely you can have no idea that we are in any way related.” “I—do—not know, of course; but——” “You do not know!” interrupted the young Southerner. “Why, you surely ought to be able to trace his genealogy, since he is your nephew.” “But he is not my nephew.” “How?” “I never saw the boy until about eight years ago.” Everet Mapleson turned a look of blank astonishment upon his companion, while a strange pallor settled over his own face. Mr. Huntress then related to him the circumstances which brought Geoffrey to his notice, telling of his unaccountable interest in him, of the experiment which had resulted in the restoration of the boy’s reason, and of his subsequent adoption of the lad. Everet Mapleson grew very grave as he listened, and a hundred conflicting thoughts came crowding into his mind. Could it be possible, after all, that this young man whom he had so disliked, and was fast learning to hate from a feeling of jealousy, was in some mysterious way connected with the proud family of Mapleson? He did not know of a relative by that name, and yet there might be. He resolved that he would sift the matter the very next time he went home. “And you know absolutely nothing about him previous to that time?” he asked of Mr. Huntress.