“When your mother fled from him and Paris she left everything that he had lavished upon her save what clothing she needed and money to defray necessary expenses during the next few months; and so after my marriage I found pocketed away among some old clothing belonging to my husband the keepsakes that he had given to her and also their marriage certificate.  I took possession of them, for I resolved that if you should outlive your father you should never have anything to prove that you were his child; if I could not have my husband’s heart I would at least have his money.

“One day a little over a year after our marriage, on my return from a drive, I was told that a man was waiting in the library to see me.  Without a suspicion of coming evil, I went at once to ascertain his errand, and was horrified to find there the butler—­the man whom I had hired to act as your mother’s escort to London.  He had been hunting for me for three years to extort more money from me, and had finally traced me from New York to San Francisco.

“He demanded another large sum from me.  It was in vain that I told him I had paid him generously for the service he had rendered me.  He insisted that I must come to his terms or he would reveal everything to my husband.  Of course I yielded to that threat, and paid him the sum he demanded, but I might have saved the money, for Walter Dinsmore, who had that morning started for Oakland for the day, but changed his mind and returned while I was out, was sitting in a small alcove leading out of the library, and had heard the whole conversation.

“Of course there was a terrible scene, and he obliged me to confess everything, although he had heard enough to enable him to comprehend the whole, and then he sternly repudiated me; but, scorning the scandal which would attend proceedings for a divorce, he gave me a meager stipend for separate maintenance, and told me he never wished to look upon my face again.  He settled his business, sold his property, and returned to New York with you and your nurse, leaving me to my fate.  He forbade me to live under the name of Dinsmore, but I would not resume my maiden name, and so adopted that of Mrs. Richmond Montague.  But I still treasured that certificate and my own also, for I meant, if I should outlive him, to claim his fortune, and also kept myself pretty well posted regarding his movements.

“Shortly after our separation my only sister died, and her son, Louis, was thus left destitute, and an orphan.  I believed that I could make him useful to me, so I adopted him.  We have roved a great deal, for we have had to eke out my limited income by the use of our wits.  My best game, though, was with the crescents which Miss Dinsmore gave me as a wedding present, and which I had duplicated several times.  Early last fall we came to New York, for in spite of all the past I still loved Walter Dinsmore, and longed to be near him.