It certified that on the 10th of April, of 18—, Adam Brewster had been united in marriage to Louisa M. Simpson, of New Haven, Connecticut, by the Reverend Albert Ackerman.
The document was faded and creased with time, and it had every appearance of being a genuine certificate. Allison read it carefully, then pushed it one side, and held out her hand for the letters.
As she untied the narrow ribbon that bound them, and the various missives dropped apart, a low cry of pain escaped her, for she instantly recognized her father’s handwriting upon their envelopes.
Opening several of these, she saw that they were affectionately addressed to “My Dearest,” “Sweetheart,” “Ma Belle,” etc., and signed “Ever yours,” or “Your own Ad.”
There could not be the slightest doubt that those letters had been written by Adam Brewster, although Allison did not have the heart to read any of them, and gradually the conviction was forced upon her that the story which John Hubbard had told her must be true.
What then, was to be her fate?
Mrs. Brewster’s confession of her secret adoption had, at first, cut her to the heart, for it had seemed to alienate her from the dear ones whom, all her life, she had regarded as her parents; but, in the light of this later revelation, she now felt a thrill of thankfulness in knowing that she had not been their child, since such a birth would seem to entail disgrace upon her; and, like a drowning person clutching at a straw of hope, she now clung to that assurance contained in the young mother’s note that the child whom she had been forced to desert was “well and honorably born.”
And yet she knew that Adam Brewster had loved her as he loved no other being on earth; that all his hopes had been centered in her; that he had constantly toiled and accumulated for her alone, and gloried in the fact that she would be his sole heiress.
She could not understand why, if he really had an own child, he should have repudiated her; why he had not made handsome provision for her. Possibly he had done so, unknown to any one save this woman and her daughter; and they, now becoming greedy for more, were taking this way to get possession of the heritage willed to her.