"I am ready to hear what you have to say, Ralph," he said.
"You suppose, and the world supposes that I have never married," the sick man commenced.
Paul Morton started, and he awaited nervously what was to follow.
"The world is right, is it not?" he said hastily.
"No, the world is wrong. Sixteen years ago I married a portionless girl. For reasons which it is unnecessary now to mention, my marriage was not made public, but it was strictly legal. My young wife lived less than two years, but ere she died she gave me a son."
"Is he still living?" asked Paul Morton, in a hoarse voice.
"Yes, he still lives."
"Then," thought Paul, with a sense of bitter disappointment, "all my labor has been for naught. This boy will inherit Raymond's fortune, and his death will be of no benefit to me."
"Where is the boy now?" he asked.
"He is at a boarding-school on the Hudson. He was early educated abroad, but for two years he has been at Dr Tower's boarding-school, about forty miles from New York."