On the evening of the day of the encounter in Charlton’s library, some of the principal persons of our story were assembled in one of the private parlors of the Astor House in New York.
Some hours previously, Vance had introduced Clara to her nearest relatives, the Pompilards; but before telling them her true name he had asked them to trace a resemblance. Instantly Netty had exclaimed: “Why, mother, it is the face you have at home in the portrait of Aunt Leonora.” And Aunt Leonora was the grandmother of Clara!
Vance then briefly presented his proofs of the relationship. Who could resist them? Pompilard, in a high state of excitement, put his hands under Clara’s arms, lifted her to a level with his lips, and kissed her on both cheeks. His wife, her grand-aunt, greeted her not less affectionately; and in embracing “Cousin Netty,” Clara was charmed to find a congenial associate.
Pompilard all at once recollected the gold casket which old Toussaint had committed to his charge for Miss Berwick. Writing an order, he got Clara to sign it, and then strode out of the room, delighted with himself for remembering the trust. Half an hour afterwards he returned and presented to his grand-niece the beautiful jewel-box, the gift of her father’s step-mother, Mrs. Charlton. Clara received it with emotion, and divesting it of the cotton-wool in which it had been kept wrapped and untouched so many years, she unlocked it, and drew forth this letter:—
“My dear little Granddaughter: This comes to you from one to whom you seem nearer than any other she leaves behind. She wishes she could make you wise through her experience. Since her heart is full of it, let her speak it. In that event, so important to your happiness, your marriage, may you be warned by her example, and neither let your affections blind your reason, nor your reason underrate the value of the affections. Be sure not only that you love, but that you are loved. Choose cautiously, my dear child, if you choose at all; and may your choice be so felicitous that it will serve for the next world as well as this.
E. B. C.”
The Pompilards remained of course to dinner; and then to the expected interview of the evening. They were introduced to the highly-dressed bride, Mrs. Ripper, formerly Clara’s teacher; also to the quadroon lady, Madame Volney. And then the gentlemen—Captain Onslow, Messrs. Winslow, Semmes, and Ripper, and last, not least, Colonel Delancy Hyde and his nephew—were all severally and formally presented to the Pompilards.
“Does it appear from Charlton’s letters to Hyde that Charlton knew of Hyde’s villany in kidnapping the child?” asked Mr. Semmes of Vance.
“No, Charlton was unquestionably ignorant, and is so to this day, of the fact that the true heir survives. All that he expected Hyde to do was to so shape his testimony as to make it appear that the child died after the mother and before the father. On this nice point all Charlton’s chances hung. And the letters are of the highest importance in showing that it was intimated by the writer to Hyde, that, in case his testimony should turn out to be of a certain nature, he, Hyde, besides having his and Quattles’s expenses to New York all paid, should receive a thousand dollars.”
“That is certainly a tremendous point against Charlton. Is it possible that Hyde did not see that he held a rod over Charlton in those letters?”