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An oath broke from his lips. "I don't care for myself," he

exclaimed, "but don't let Sibyl.... It is a gentleman, isn't it,

who is in love with her, or says he is? Highly connected, too, I

suppose."

For a moment a hideous sense of humiliation came over the woman.

Her head drooped. She wiped her eyes with shaking hands. "Sibyl

has a mother," she murmured; "I had none."

The lad was touched. He went towards her, and stooping down, he

kissed her. "I am sorry if I have pained you by asking about my

father," he said, "but I could not help it. I must go now.

Good-bye. Don't forget that you will have only one child now to

look after, and believe me that if this man wrongs my sister, I

will find out who he is, track him down, and kill him like a dog.

I swear it."