“Are you not my uncle?” he asked.
“No; there is no tie of blood between us.”
“Then how does it happen that we have lived together so many years?”
“I was a servant in your father’s family. When your father died the care of you devolved upon me.”
“Where was I born?”
“In a large town in the western part of New York State. Your grandfather was a man of wealth, but your father incurred his displeasure by his marriage to a poor but highly educated and refined girl. A cousin of your father took advantage of this and succeeded in alienating father and son. The estate that should have descended to your father was left to the cousin.”
“Is he still living?”
“Yes.”
“But my father died?”
“Yes; he had a fever which quickly carried him off when you were five years of age.”