CHAPTER XI.

MONA IN A TRYING POSITION.

Mona breathed more freely, for she believed from his evasive reply that Mrs. Montague did not now believe her to be Mona Forester's child.

"I beg you will not tell her," she said, impulsively, and then instantly regretted having made the request.

The young man's face lighted.

If they could have a common secret he believed that he should make some headway in his wooing.

"That will depend upon how kind you are to me," he said, meaningly.

Mona's head went up haughtily again. His presumption, his a.s.surance, both annoyed and angered her.

He affected not to notice her manner, and asked:

"What was your object, Miss Montague, in coming into my aunt's family under an a.s.sumed name?"

Mona thought a moment before replying; then she felt that since he already knew so much, it would do no harm to tell him the truth.

"I had no intention at first of going anywhere under an a.s.sumed name,"

she said, gravely. "I applied at an employment bureau for a situation as seamstress, and this position was obtained for me. I did not even know the name of the woman who had engaged me, until I entered Mrs. Montague's house. When I learned the truth, I was tempted to leave at once; but the desire to learn more than I already knew regarding my parentage made me bold to brave discovery, and remain at least for a while, and so upon the spur of the moment I gave the name of Ruth Richards--Ruth is my middle name, and Richards very nearly like that of the man who married my mother--"

"Who married your mother?" questioned Louis Hamblin, in a mocking tone.

"Yes; they were legally married. I at least know that much," said Mona, positively, determined to make him think she fully believed it.

"How did you learn so much?"

"My uncle a.s.sured me of the fact only the day before he died."

"Your uncle? You mean Walter Dinsmore, I suppose?"

"Yes; of course."

"How much of your history did he reveal to you?" questioned the young man, eagerly.

"I do not feel under any obligation to tell you that," Mona coldly answered.

"Now, Miss Montague," Louis said, with well a.s.sumed frankness and friendliness, "why will you persist in treating me as an enemy? Why will you not have confidence in me, and allow me to help you? I know your whole history--I know, too, from what you have said, that you are ignorant of much that is vital to your interests, and which I could reveal to you, if I chose. Now forget any unpleasantness that may have arisen between us, tell me just what you hoped to learn by remaining in my aunt's family, and, believe me, I stand ready to help you."

Mona lifted her great liquid brown eyes, and searched his face.

Oh, how she longed to know the truth about her mother; but she distrusted him--she instinctively doubted his sincerity.

He read something of this in her glance, and continued, hoping to disarm her suspicions:

"Of course you know that Aunt Margie is, or was, Richmond Montague's second wife--"

"Ah! by that statement you yourself virtually acknowledge that my mother was his first wife," triumphantly interposed Mona. "As I said before, my uncle a.s.sured me of the fact, but your admission is worth something to me as corroborative evidence. All that I desire now is tangible proof of it; if you can and will obtain that for me, I shall have some faith in your a.s.sertion that you wish to help me."

"Are you so eager to claim, as your father, the man who deserted your mother?" Louis Hamblin asked, with a sneer, and wishing to sound her a little further.

"No; I simply want proof that my mother was a legal wife--I have only scorn and contempt for the man who wronged her," Mona replied, intense aversion vibrating in her tones. "I regard him, as my uncle did, as a knave--a brute."

"Did Walter Dinsmore represent him as such to you?" inquired her companion, in a mocking tone.

"He did; he expressed the utmost contempt and loathing for the man who had ruined his sister's life."

The young man gave vent to a short, derisive laugh.

"I cannot deny the justness of the epithets applied to him," he said, with a sneer, "but, that such terms should have fallen from the immaculate lips of the cultured and aristocratic Walter Dinsmore, rather amuses me, especially as the present Mrs. Dinsmore might, with some reason, perhaps, bring the same charges against him."

"Did you know my uncle?" Mona questioned, with some surprise.

"Not personally; but Mrs. Montague knew him very well years ago."

"Oh! I wonder if you could tell me--" Mona began, greatly agitated, as she recalled the dreadful suspicion that had flashed into her mind regarding her uncle, in connection with her father's death.

"If I could tell you what?" Louis inquired, while he wondered what thought could have so suddenly blanched her face, and sent that look of terror into her beautiful eyes.

"Oh, I want to know--did he--how did my father die?" the young girl cried, in faltering, trembling tones.

Louis Hamblin regarded her with unfeigned astonishment at the question.

"How did your father die?" he repeated. "Why, like any other respectable gentleman--in his own house, and of an incurable disease."

"Oh! then he did die a natural death," breathed Mona, with a sigh of relief that was almost a sob.

"Certainly. Ah!" and her companion appeared suddenly to divine her thoughts, "so you imagined that Walter Dinsmore killed Richmond Montague for the wrong done your mother! Ha! ha! I have no doubt that he felt bitter enough to commit murder, or almost any other act of violence, to avenge her; but let me a.s.sure you, Miss Montague, that that high-toned gentleman never soiled his hands with blood; and if that was your thought--"

"It is no matter what I thought," Mona hastily, but coldly, interposed, for she had no intention of confessing any such suspicion; but she was greatly relieved to learn that it had no foundation, and she now bitterly reproached herself for having even momentarily entertained a thought of anything that had been so foreign to her uncle's n.o.ble nature.

"To go back to what we were speaking of before," she continued, gravely, "will you furnish me with tangible proof of my mother's marriage? I know that she eloped with Richmond Montague, that they lived together for several months, when he suddenly deserted her, and that there is some mystery connected with that event--something which my uncle hesitated or feared to tell me. I know, too, that he was very anxious to reveal something more to me when he lay dying, and could not, because he had been stricken speechless. But for that fact, I believe I should not now be obliged to ask this favor of you," she concluded, flushing.

"Does it gall you so much, to ask a favor of me?" he inquired, bitterly.

"But why," he went on, without waiting for a reply, "are you so exceedingly anxious to obtain this proof? Do you expect by the use of it to secure to yourself the property left by your father? Was that your object in remaining in my aunt's family under an a.s.sumed name?"

"No!" Mona vehemently returned. "I would not touch one dollar of his money. I would scorn to profit by so much as a penny of the fortune left by the man who deserted his wife in her sad extremity, and then, when death freed him from the tie which bound him to her, married a woman whom he did not love; who possessed so little of fatherly instinct in his nature, that he never acknowledged his child, nor betrayed the slightest interest in or affection for her. I would never own him for such a purpose; while, were it not for the sake of establishing my mother's honor, I would even repudiate the name I bear," she concluded, looking so proud and beautiful in her righteous scorn that the young man gazed upon her with admiration.

"You are very proud-spirited," he remarked; then, with a sly smile, "but as for the name you affect to so despise, it would be an easy matter to change it."

Mona colored at this observation, not because she gave a thought to his meaning, but because she hoped it would not be so very long before she would change the hated name of Montague for the honored one of Palmer.