Whether the agent used his best endeavors to trace Isabel and failed in the attempt, or whether he quietly pocketed his fee and satisfied his conscience by making a few perfunctory but futile inquiries was a point as to which nothing was ever known, nor ever would be now, the man himself having died a few months later. In any case no communication from him ever reached Warren Strickland. As it fell out, however, the young soldier came by his death within a year after landing, having been mortally wounded in a skirmish with some of the hill tribes. He lived long enough to enable him to dictate a letter to his father--who was himself in India at the time, but a thousand miles away from where his son lay dying--in which he told him all about his marriage and the flight of Isabel; making it his last request that on his father's return to England, he should use every endeavor to find his daughter-in-law and her child, and prove to Isabel how terribly mistaken she had been in acting as she had. With his letter the dying man enclosed his marriage certificate. For reasons which need not be detailed, Major Strickland had been precluded from doing anything towards the fulfilment of his son's last wishes till a month or two before his first call on Miss Pengarvon. "There is one question," said the Major, in conclusion, addressing himself directly to Hermia, "which I have refrained from asking till after I had told you all there is to tell, as far as I am concerned. It is about your mother, my dear. Is she still living? Is she----?" Something in the girl's face bade him pause. "Not till yesterday did I know who my mother was, or anything about her," replied Hermia, in broken accents. "But she is dead--so I am now told. She died when I was only a few weeks old." "Is that indeed so?" said the Major, with a sigh. "Then the hope of finding her, and of proving to her the utter falsity of the charge made by that vile woman against my poor boy must now be abandoned for ever. But had it not been for my endeavors to trace her, I should not have found you. For that, my dear child, I can never be sufficiently thankful. I have no one but you in the world, and already I feel that you are very dear to me." They were sitting on the sofa side by side. The Major moved a little nearer to the girl, and taking her head gently between his hands, he drew it towards him and kissed her tenderly on the forehead. Then Hermia's arms were wound round his neck, and with her cheek resting against his shoulder, her overcharged heart found its natural relief in tears. Aunt Charlotte rose, and beckoning to Clem, they left grandfather and granddaughter together. The ladies had retired for the night, and the Major and Clem were sitting over a final weed.