"Absolutely correct, but I did not know it till yesterday; I thought that she was dead long since. I have never heard a word of her since she left the village seventeen years ago. And because she knew of my crime, because she knew of the great sin that hangs over the house, she wrote to me and asked me to help her. It appears that she had been residing in London at a place called Keppel Terrace, where she has tried to live by letting lodgings." "That much I know," Ralph said. "She wrote to my father from time to time. What I did not know is that she had a son. Please go on." "It was a most pitiful letter she wrote me. She was going to lose her home if she did not receive a certain sum by a certain time. The letter came too late for me to help. It was followed by a telegram asking me to send the money to another address. Had you not come into my life, had things been different, I should have sent the money and thought no more about it. But things came into my mind and a vague suspicion that I felt bound to verify. I went to London yesterday and I saw Mrs. Speed. She told me that it was her son who had brought her to this pass. Of course, up to that time I had no idea she had a son. I asked her to show me his photograph, and she did so. You can guess whose likeness it was?" "I can guess now," Ralph said. "Of course, it was the man who is at present master of Dashwood Hall. Did the woman know that?" "Oh, dear, no. She has not the least idea. But you can see now where the impostor got all his knowledge, and how he came into possession of so many documents." "Not quite," Ralph said, "I want a little light on this particular spot."