"No'm—I didn't know it then. I've been thinking lately that maybe it was. I'm—I'm real sorry."
"What did you say your real name was?" demanded Clemantiny.
"Stephens, ma'am."
"And your mother's name before she was married?"
"Mary Morrow," said Chester, wondering what upon earth Clemantiny meant.
Clemantiny turned to Miss Salome with an air of surrendering a dearly cherished opinion.
"Well, ma'am, I guess you must be right about his looking like Johnny. I must say I never could see the resemblance, but it may well be there, for he—that very fellow there—and Johnny are first cousins. Their mothers were sisters!"
"Clemantiny!" exclaimed Miss Salome.
"You may well say 'Clemantiny.' Such a coincidence! It doesn't make you and him any relation, of course—the cousinship is on the mother's side. But it's there. Mary Morrow was born and brought up in Hopedale. She went to Upton when I did, and married Oliver Stephens there. Why, I knew his father as well as I know you."
"This is wonderful," said Miss Salome. Then she added sorrowfully, "But it doesn't make your running away right, Chester."