The boy, wrong in many instances, was right in this, that the secret of his birth could not be concealed from him.

His poor mother had never divulged it to him, never meant him to know that, the knowledge of which, she thought, would only make him unhappy; but she had told no falsehoods, put forth no false showing to hide it irrecoverably from him.

She was known among her poor Italian neighbors as Signora Valeria, and supposed by them to be the widow of that handsome young Pole to whom they had seen her married, and from whom they had seen her torn by her father, some years before.  Of the Duke of Hereward, her second husband, and of her divorce from him, they knew nothing.  But she was known to her father-confessor, to her news-agent, and later to her son, as Valerie de la Motte Scott, for though no longer entitled to bear the latter name, she had tacitly allowed it to cling to her.

Now as to how the boy discovered the secret that was designed to be concealed from him.

When with childish curiosity he had inquired, his mother had told him that he had lost his father in infancy; and the boy understood that the loss was by death:  but as time passed, and the lad questioned more particularly concerning his parentage, his mother, in repeating that he had lost his father in infancy, added that the loss had been attended with distressing circumstances, and begged him to desist in his inquiries.  This only stimulated the interest and curiosity of the youth, and kept him on the qui vive for any word, or look, or circumstance that might give him a clew to the mystery.  And thus it followed that with a mother so simple and unguarded as Valerie, and a son so cunning and watchful as Archibald, the secret she wished to keep be soon discovered.  But he kept his own counsel for the sake of gaining still more information.  And, at length, the full revelation and confirmation of all that he had suspected came to him in a manner and by means his mother had never foreseen or provided against.

Valerie had made a will leaving all her property to her son, and appointing the Duke of Hereward as his guardian.  After her death, all her papers and other effects had to be overhauled and examined and her son took care to read every paper that he was free to handle.  Among these was a copy of the will of the late Waldemar de Volaski, by which he bequeathed to Valerie de la Motte Scott, Duchess of Hereward, all his personal property.

Here was both a revelation and a mystery!  Valerie de la Motte Scott, his most unhappy mother, Duchess of Hereward! and his guardian, appointed by her—­the Duke of Hereward!

Who was the Duke of Hereward?  That he was a great English nobleman was evident!  But aside from that, who and what was he?

The boy was in a fever of excitement.  It was of no use to ask any of his poor Italian neighbors, for they knew less than he did.  He had heard of a mammoth London annual, called Burke’s Peerage, which would tell all about the living and dead nobility; but there was no copy of it anywhere in reach.