With a sharp cry of anguish the youth sprang up; but governing his strong excitement he subsided to his seat, only gasping out the question: "In the name of Heaven, why can you not?" Hannah's violent sobs were the only answer. "Aunt Hannah! I know this much--that your name is Hannah Worth; that my dear mother was your sister; that her name was Nora Worth; and that mine is Ishmael Worth! Therefore I know that I bear yours and my mother's maiden name! I always took it for granted that my father belonged to the same family; that he was a relative, perhaps a cousin of my mother, and that he bore the same name, and therefore did not in marrying my mother give her a new one. That was what I always thought, Aunt Hannah; was I right?" Hannah sobbed on in silence. "Aunt Hannah! by my mother's grave, I adjure you to answer me! Was I right?" "No, Ishmael, you were not!" wailed Hannah. "Then I do not bear my father's name?" "No." "But only my poor mother's?" "Yes." "Oh, Heaven! how is that?" "Because you have no legal right to your father's; because the only name to which you have any legal right is your poor, wronged mother's!" With a groan that seemed to rend body and soul asunder, Ishmael threw himself upon his mother's grave. "You said she was an angel! And I know that she was!" he cried, as soon as he had recovered the power of speech. "I said truly, and you know the truth!" wept Hannah. "How, then, is it, that I, her son, cannot bear my father's name?" "Ishmael, your mother was the victim of a false marriage!" Ishmael sprang up from his recumbent posture, and gazed at his aunt with a fierceness that pierced through the darkness. "And so pure and proud was she, that the discovery broke her heart!" Ishmael threw himself once more upon the grave, and clasping the mound in his arms, burst into a passionate flood of tears, and wept long and bitterly. And, after a while, through this shower of tears, came forth in gusty sobs these words: "Oh, mother! Oh, poor, young, wronged, and broken-hearted mother! sleep in peace; for your son lives to vindicate you. Yes, if he has been spared, it was for this purpose--to honor, to vindicate, to avenge you!" And after these words his voice was again lost and drowned in tears and sobs. Hannah kneeled down beside him, took his hand, and tried to raise him, saying: "Ishmael, my love, get up, dear! There was no wrong done, no crime committed, nothing to avenge. Your father was as guiltless as your mother, my boy; there was no sin; nothing from first to last but great misfortune. Come into the house, my Ishmael, and I will tell you all about it." "Yes; tell me all! tell me every particular; have no more concealments from me!" cried Ishmael, rising to follow his aunt.