"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.
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.
"Give it to him," he said, with a nod toward Clifford, and Maria placed it in his hands, after which she walked quietly from the room again.
Clifford was deeply moved, and his hands trembled visibly as he untied the cord that held the cover in place and removed it. He merely glanced at the letters as he took them out; but seized the folded parchment with an eagerness which betrayed how anxious he was to learn the identity of the man who had married and deserted his mother.
He removed the pin that held the two papers together and unfolded the topmost one, which proved to be the marriage-certificate. He searched it eagerly for the name he wanted, and a perplexed look swept over his face as he read it: "W. F. T. Wilton."
"W. F. T. Wilton," he repeated thoughtfully. "Well, it does not enlighten me very much. What do the initials 'W. F. T.' stand for?"
"William Faxon Temple," briefly replied his companion, and regarding him with a peculiar look.
At first the name did not seem to mean much to Clifford. Then, all at once, he started erect, a terrible shock galvanizing him from head to foot, as his mind flew back to his first summer in the mountains, where he had met the wealthy banker, William F. Temple, and his family; as he recalled also his interview with the man on the morning after Minnie Temple's rescue, when he had been so strangely moved upon learning his own name.