“It is not all,” said Charley, sadly; “since his mysterious disappearance an experienced detective was engaged to endeavour to find him, and, after most arduous labour, succeeded in tracing him to the vicinity of Hendon, where his body had been discovered lifeless upon the earth. Nothing was found upon him to tell who he was; and, after a coroner’s inquest was held, bills describing the body and the circumstances under which it had been found were put forth; one accidentally caught the eye of the detective, and he prosecuted inquiries in that neighbourhood. He found that interment had taken place under the direction of the parish authorities, and nothing, therefore, was left to identify the unknown but his clothes and a handkerchief. Mr. Grahame’s man has recognised them, and thus has placed beyond doubt his sad his dreadful fate.” Both sisters were in a convulsion of grief, and Charley felt most distressed, for he knew not how to offer them consolation. But as he knew of the forged deed, and of the worst crime--the incitement of Chewkle to commit the murder of old Mr. Wilton, he could only say to them---- “Let it be some consolation to you, ladies, to know that, unhappy and dreadful as this event proves, it is better under all circumstances that it has so happened.” So, Grahame had after all died a pauper’s death and had received a pauper’s funeral. Such was the end of an imperious pride, unsustained by the principles of religion and morality. Yet more grief for the afflicted girls. Mrs. Truebody made her appearance abruptly in the room. She tottered rather than walked to the two sisters, yet weeping in each other’s arms. She pressed her hands lightly upon their shoulders and said, in weeping tones--- “Dear, dear young ladies, the terrible intelligence you have just heard comes not alone--evils seldom do. The sad news I hear can but add to a grief, violent enough without it--of that I am aware, but it does not come without a consolation. If it has pleased Heaven to remove suddenly your afflicted mother from this world, it has released her also from suffering, and a calamity which must have been a grief to all who were near and dear to her. Poor, dear, afflicted young ladies, your mother is no more.” Helen sank fainting on a chair. Charley had already caught Evangeline in his arms, as she suddenly became bereft of all consciousness. CHAPTER XIII.--WHO IS HE? Of all the causes which conspire to blind Man’s erring judgment, and misguide the mind, What the weak head with strongest bias rules, Is Pride, the never-failing vice of fools. Whatever Nature has in worth deny’d, She gives in large recruits of needless Pride! For, as in bodies thus in souls, we find What wants in blood and spirits, swell’d with wind. --Pope.