"Some old love-letters that passed between your father and mother while they were fooling me to the top of their bent, the certificate of their marriage, and another of your baptism, with some other things of minor importance."
"Oh! then there is proof that my mother was legally married?" said Clifford eagerly.
"Yes, they were married, straight enough; though it wouldn't have surprised me at all if my scapegrace of a brother had made a fool of her. I never knew him to consult his conscience much where his own pleasure was concerned," said the squire dryly.
"I once inferred from something you said that there was some doubt about it," said Clifford flushing.
"Well, I was pretty mad at you that night, and I didn't care much what I said."
"You have said that my father was your half-brother, and that Faxon was not his surname. What was his name?" the young man inquired with a clouded brow.
"Well, it is natural that you should want to know, and these papers will tell you. I'll call Maria and she will bring them to you," Squire Talford replied, and he rang the little handbell by his side, and which was to summon Mrs. Kimberly to the scene.
CHAPTER XX.
CLIFFORD LEARNS HIS FATHER'S NAME.
Maria, evidently, was not far away, for she entered the room almost immediately after the ringing of Squire Talford's bell and bearing the box in her hands. She paused, after closing the door, and glanced inquiringly at the squire.