Had no unusual circumstances occurred? Had nothing happened which the General had forgotten? Nothing.
X.
IT is surely needless that I should stop here, to draw the plain inferences from the events just related.
Any person who remembers that the shawl in which the infant was wrapped came from those Eastern regions which were associated with the French nobleman's diplomatic services--also, that the faults of composition in the letter found on the child were exactly the faults likely to have been committed by the French maid--any person who follows these traces can find his way to the truth as I found mine.
Returning for a moment to the hopes which I had formed of being of some service to Michael, I have only to say that they were at once destroyed, when I heard of the death by drowning of the man to whom the evidence pointed as his father. The prospect looked equally barren when I thought of the miserable mother. That she should openly acknowledge her son in her position was perhaps not to be expected of any woman. Had she courage enough, or, in plainer words, heart enough to acknowledge him privately?