A shade of sadness clouded her fair brow, and a deep sigh broke from her lips.
“Will you tell me this unnatural father’s name?” asked Robert.
“Ralph Moulton.”
“Ralph Moulton!” exclaimed Robert, wildly. “Which—who—what—pardon me, I am so taken by surprise. But will you please tell me in what part of the United States your uncles found him?”
Our hero leaned breathlessly forward, awaiting her reply.
“In S——, Massachusetts,” she answered, glancing up in gentle surprise.
“The same—the very same. How exceedingly strange!” he replied, starting to his feet and pacing back and forth.
“Do you know this man, who, I am told, is my father?”
“Know him?” replied Robert, bitterly. “I know him as an enemy—as my father’s bitterest enemy; and I begin to feel convinced that he is concerned in that plot against me. Yes, yes; I see it all now—fool that I have been, not to think of it before!”
He struck his hand violently against his brow as he recalled what the chief had told him—about his father’s unlawful marriage, and his being an illegitimate son.