"I don't know as I ought to tell you. I didn't believe him."
"But I want to know what he did say?" demanded Jack, throwing down his fishing pole and coming up close to his friend.
"Well, if you must know, Jack, he said you were a nobody, that you didn't belong to the Ruthven family at all, and that you would have to go away some day," was the answer, which filled Jack with consternation.
DARCY GILBERT'S STORY.
"He said I didn't belong to the Ruthven family?" said Jack slowly, when he felt able to speak.
"He did, and I told him I didn't believe him."
"But—but—I don't understand you, Darcy. Am I not Jack Ruthven, the son of the late Colonel Martin Ruthven?"
"He says not."
"What! Does he mean to say that my mother isn't my mother at all?" ejaculated Jack, with wide-open eyes.