On observing the return of Alfred, Mr. Middleton took the first opportunity of saying to his son: "I see that you have brought Burghe back." "Yes, father; since Ishmael is not here to be pained by his presence, I thought it better to bring him back; for I remembered your words spoken of him on a former occasion: 'That kindness will do more to reform such a nature as his than reprobation could.'" "Yes--very true! But poor Ishmael! Where is he?" Aye! where, indeed? CHAPTER XXXII. AT HIS MOTHER'S GRAVE. He sees her lone headstone, 'Tis white as a shroud; Like a pall hangs above it The low, drooping cloud. 'Tis well that the white ones Who bore her to bliss, Shut out from her new life The sorrows of this. Else sure as he stands here, And speaks of his love, She would leave for his darkness Her glory above. --_E.H. Whittier_. Giddy, faint, reeling from the shock he had received, Ishmael tottered from the gay and lighted rooms and sought the darkness and the coolness of the night without. He leaned against the great elm tree on the lawn, and wiped the beaded sweat from his brow. "It is not true," he said. "I know it is not true! Walter said it was false; and I would stake my soul that it is. My dear mother is an angel in heaven; I am certain of that; for I have seen her in my dreams ever since I can remember. But yet--but yet--why did they all recoil from me? Even she--even Claudia Merlin shrank from me as from something unclean and contaminating, when Alfred called me that name. If they had not thought there was some truth in the charge, would they all have recoiled from me so? Would she have shrunk from me as if I had had the plague? Oh, no! Oh, no! And then Aunt Hannah! Why does she act so very strangely when I ask her about my parents? If I ask her about my father she answers me with a blow. If I ask her about my mother, she answers that my mother was a saint on earth and is now an angel in heaven. Oh! I do not need to be told that; I know it already. I always knew it of my dear mother. But to only know it no longer satisfies me; I must have the means of proving it. And to-night, yes, to-night, Aunt Hannah, before either of us sleep, you shall tell me all that you know of my angel mother and my unknown father." And having recovered his severely shaken strength, Ishmael left the grounds of Brudenell Hall and struck into the narrow foot-path leading down the heights and through the valley to the Hut hill. Hannah was seated alone, enjoying her solitary cup of tea, when Ishmael opened the door and entered. "What, my lad, have you come back so early? I did not think the ball would have been over before twelve or one o'clock, and it is not ten yet; but I suppose, being a school ball, it broke up early. Did you get any premiums? How many did you get?" inquired Hannah, heaping question upon question without waiting for reply, as was her frequent custom.