"Your name is Scott, young sir?"
"Yes, your grace—a very common name," modestly replied the youth.
"It is ours also" added the duke with a smile.
"I beg your grace's pardon," said the boy, with some embarrassment.
"No offence, young sir. Your mother's name was also Scott, I presume?"
"Yes, your grace; my mother never re-married."
"Ah," said the duke, and he turned the letter for the first page, and commenced its perusal.
And then—
Reader! If the Duke of Hereward's hair had not already been white with age, it must have turned as white as snow with amazement and horror as he read the astounding disclosures of that dying woman's letter!