He paused, and Jaquelina regarded him with wild, wondering eyes.
"Lina, I need not tell you more," he said. "You can guess."
She lifted her small hands dizzily to her brow.
"Tell me yourself," she said. "I am so dazed it seems to me I cannot understand unless I hear the very words."
He said them over, reluctantly enough:
"Gerald Huntington's true name is Ardelle. Your mother, little Lina, was his elder sister. He was your own uncle. Your mother's jewelry revealed your true identity to him that night."
A moan of pain came from the girl's white lips as she pressed her hand to her brow.
"My own uncle!" she cried. "Oh, the shame and disgrace of it!"
"It is a buried secret," he replied. "No one will ever know! I promised him that myself, Lina. He died repentant. I believe that a noble nature was marred when Gerald Ardelle, with his princely beauty and glorious intellect, fell into evil ways."
"But he died repentant," she murmured, hopefully.