"Antoinette, I have deceived you, though as God is my witness, I thought no harm could come of it. I deluded myself into believing that I had found friends and a refuge at last. I am Mrs. Temple." "Mrs. Temple!" The girl repeated the name sorrowfully, but perplexedly, not grasping its full significance. "She is my mother," said Nick, with a bitterness I had not thought in him, "she is my mother, or I would curse her. For she has ruined my life and brought shame on a good name." He paused, his breath catching for very anger. Mrs. Temple hid her face in her hands, while the girl shrank back in terror. I grasped him by the arm. "Have you no compassion?" I cried. But Mrs. Temple interrupted me. "He has the right," she faltered; "it is my just punishment." He tore himself away, and took a step to her. "Where is Riddle?" he cried. "As God lives, I will kill him without mercy!" His mother lifted her head again. "God has judged him," she said quietly; "he is beyond your vengeance--he is dead." A sob shook her, but she conquered it with a marvellous courage. "Harry Riddle loved me, he was kind to me, and he was a better man than John Temple." Nick recoiled. The fierceness of his anger seemed to go, leaving a more dangerous humor. "Then I have been blessed with parents," he said. At that she swayed, but when I would have caught her she motioned me away and turned to Antoinette. Twice Mrs. Temple tried to speak. "I was going away to-night," she said at length, "and you would never have seen or heard of me more. My nephew David--Mr. Ritchie--whom I treated cruelly as a boy, had pity on me. He is a good man, and he was to have taken me away--I do not attempt to defend myself, my dear, but I pray that you, who have so much charity, will some day think a little kindly of one who has sinned deeply, of one who will love and bless you and yours to her dying day." She faltered, and Nick would have spoken had not Antoinette herself stayed him with a gesture.