She released him at last, however, and returned to her position beside his father, and watching his opportunity he stole unobserved from the room, and up stairs, intending to get away from the house as soon as possible.

Reaching Mrs. Montague’s boudoir, he walked to the bay-window, and looked out upon the street.  He was nervous and excited, and wished to regain his accustomed composure before going down stairs again.

He stood there a moment absorbed in unpleasant reflections, then turned to get his coat and hat.

As he did so, one of his feet caught in the heavy damask draperies, and in trying to disengage it, something crackled sharply beneath it, and he stooped to ascertain what it was.

Sweeping aside the heavy curtains, he saw a long, narrow document lying upon the floor beneath its folds.

He picked it up, and saw that it was a piece of parchment with something apparently printed upon it.

Not supposing it to be anything of importance, he mechanically unfolded it and began to read.

“Why, it is a marriage certificate!” he exclaimed, in surprise, under his breath.

Not caring to read the whole form, he simply glanced at the places where the names of the contracting parties were written, and instantly a mighty shock seemed to shake him from head to foot.

“Ha! what can this mean?” he exclaimed, in a breathless voice.

His face grew deathly pale.  A blur came before his eyes.  He rubbed them to dispel it, and looked again.

“It cannot be possible!” he said, in a hoarse whisper, and actually panting as if he had been running hard.  “I cannot believe my sight, and yet it is here in black and white! and Mona—­Mona, my darling! the mystery will be solved, and you will be righted at last.”

The certificate, as will be readily surmised, was the very one which Mrs. Montague had examined the previous evening.

When Mona had knocked upon the door, it will be remembered that she was greatly startled and had upset the table.  The accident had caused the certificate to be thrown upon the floor, with the other things, and by some means it was pushed beneath the heavy damask curtain and had escaped Mrs. Montague’s eye and memory, when she hastily gathered up the scattered treasures and rearranged them in the secret compartment of the table.

Thus it had come into Ray’s possession just at a time when it was most needed and desired.

Regaining his composure somewhat, he read it carefully through from beginning to end.

“How could it have come to be in such a strange place, and to fall into my hands?” he said, the look of wonder still on his face.  “She—­that woman must have had it in her possession, even as Mona suspected, and by some mistake or oversight dropped and forgot it.  Shall I tell her I have found it?  Shall I return it and then demand it from her?” he questioned, his innate sense of honor recoiling from everything that seemed dishonorable.  “No,” he continued, sternly, “it is not hers—­she has no right whatever to it; it belongs to Mona alone, for it is the proof of her birthright.  I will take it directly to Mr. Corbin, and I will not even tell Mona until I have first confided in him.”