Mrs. Floyd turned pale.  “There must be some mistake,” she said; “no one here knows it—­and only one or two up in Tennessee.”

“There is no mistake,” sighed the girl.  “He told me the other day that he had relatives in Tennessee.  Oh, mother, more people know it than you think.  I have always felt that they knew.  So many have noticed that you and I do not look alike.”

Mrs. Floyd’s eyes were moist and her face was wrung with sympathy.  She put her arms around the girl and drew her to her breast.  “I ought never to have told you,” she said; “but the lawyers knew it, and when your papa’s estate was wound up it had to be told to a few.  I thought you would soon forget it, but you have never stopped thinking about it.  You are entirely too sensitive, too—­”

“Mother, you don’t know anything about it,” said Harriet.  “When you told me I was not your child I actually prayed to die.  It has been the only real trouble I ever had.  I never see poor, worthless people without thinking that I may be closely related to them, and since Mr. Westerfelt has been here and told me about his aristocratic relatives and his old family, I have been more unhappy than ever.  I was going to tell him some day, but he saved me the trouble.”

“I can’t imagine how he knew it,” gave in Mrs. Floyd, thoughtfully.  “Perhaps he has had some dealings with our lawyers, though they promised not to speak of it.  I thought when we moved down here among strangers you’d quit troubling about that.  You know you are as good as anybody else, so what is the good of worrying?  You make me very unhappy, Harriet.  I feel almost as if I did wrong to bring you up.  But you know I love you just the same as if you was my own child, don’t you?”

“Yes, and I love you as if you were my own mother.  I love you more, too, when I am in trouble, though I reckon I don’t show it; but, mother, I am dying to know something about my own flesh and blood.  I’d rather know that my blood was good than have all the wealth of the earth.  You have let enough out to show me that I must have had very, very poor parents.”

“I simply said that when they left you at my house you had on rather cheap clothing, but you know that was just after the war, when nobody could dress their children much.”

“But they deserted me,” said Harriet; “they could not have been very honorable.  I reckon Mr. Westerfelt knows all about it.”

“Well, he won’t think any the less of you if he does,” said Mrs. Floyd.  “He looks like a born gentleman to me.  You will never see a man like him turning against a girl for something she can’t help.  You ought not to say your parents were not honorable; they may have left you, thinking it would be best for you.  We were considered pretty well off then.”

Harriet made no reply for several minutes, and then she said: