For we have never heard from the father, and, at leest, no one knows that Nora has a living son but I and my daughter Jane, and Parson Dale and you--and you Two are good Gentlemen--and Jane will keep her word, and I am old, and shall be in my grave Soon, but I hope it won't be while poor John needs me. What could he do without me? And if _that_ got wind, it would kill me straight, sir. Pore John is a helpless cretur, God bliss him. So no more from your servant in all dooty, "M. AVENEL." Leonard laid down this letter very calmly, and, except by a slight heaving at his breast, and a deathlike whiteness of his lips, the emotions he felt were undetected. And it is a proof how much exquisite goodness there was in his heart that the first words he spoke were, "Thank Heaven!" The Doctor did not expect that thanksgiving, and he was so startled that he exclaimed, "For what?" "I have nothing to pity or excuse in the woman I knew and honored as a mother. I am not her son--her--" He stopped short. "No; but don't be hard on your true mother--poor Nora!" Leonard staggered, and then burst into a sudden paroxysm of tears. "Oh, my own mother!--my dead mother! Thou for whom I felt so mysterious a love--thou, from whom I took this poet soul--pardon me, pardon me! Hard on thee! Would that thou wert living yet, that I might comfort thee! What thou must have suffered!" These words were sobbed forth in broken gasps from the depth of his heart. Then he caught up the letter again, and his thoughts were changed as his eyes fell upon the writer's shame and fear, as it were, of his very existence. All his native haughtiness returned to him. His crest rose, his tears dried. "Tell her," he said, with a stern unfaltering voice--"tell Mrs. Avenel that she is obeyed--that I will never seek her roof, never cross her path, never disgrace her wealthy son. But tell her also, that I will choose my own way in life--that I will not take from her a bribe for concealment. Tell her that I am nameless, and will yet make a name." A name! Was this but an idle boast, or was it one of those flashes of conviction which are never belied, lighting up our future for one lurid instant, and then fading into darkness? "I do not doubt it, my prave poy," said Dr. Morgan, growing exceedingly Welsh in his excitement; "and perhaps you may find a father, who--" "Father--who is he--what is he? He lives then! But he has deserted me--he must have betrayed her! I need him not. The law gives me no father." The last words were said with a return of bitter anguish; then, in a calmer tone, he resumed, "But I should know who he is--as another one whose path I may not cross." Dr. Morgan looked embarrassed, and paused in deliberation. "Nay," said he at length, "as you know so much, it is surely best that you should know all." The doctor then proceeded to detail, with some circumlocution, what we will here repeat from his account more succinctly.