Tes, it must be General Picardy himself. I did not 
know he lived at Bath ; indeed, I doubted if he were 
living at all. I have not heard of him for so many 
years." 

" But, mother, who is General Picardy ?" 

" Tour grandfather." 

I too sank down on a chair, shaking all over with agi- 
tation. It was such a . A painful , too, 
for it implied that my mother had had secrets from me 
 secrets kept for years. 

" And you never told me ? Surely I was old enough 
to know something about my own grandfather, whom I 
always supposed to be dead." 

" I never said so. But still I thought it most proba- 
ble, since if alive he must have been keeping silence 
and  against me for seventeen years." 

"  against you, my own best, dearest mother ! 
Then I will throw his card into the , and never 
think of him again." 

She stopped my hand. "No  he is your grandfa- 
ther, your father's father, and the nearest relation, after 
me, that you have in the world. Let us talk about him 
quietly by and by. Come down to tea now, Elma, my 
child. You know," with