outside of the courts."

"An' won't she never believe it? won't she never take me?"

The boy's voice and look revealed the sudden clashing of his hope.

"Oh, yes, Ralph! in time; I do not doubt that in good time she will
recognize you and take you to her home. She has so long believed you
to be dead that it is hard for her to overcome the prejudice of that
belief."

Then another fear came into the lad's mind.

"Are you sure," he cried out, "that I am her boy? are you sure I'm the
right one?"

"Oh, yes!" said the lawyer, assuringly, "oh, yes! there's no mistake
about that, there isn't the shadow of a doubt about that. We shall
establish your identity beyond question; but we shall have to do it in
the courts. When it is once done no one can prevent you from taking
the name and the property to which you are entitled and using them as
you see fit."

"But my mother!" said Ralph, anxiously, "my mother; she's all I care
about; I don't want the property if I can't have her."

"And you shall have her, my boy. Mrs. Burnham said to me this morning,
that, until your claim was duly proved in a court of law, she would
have no legal right to accept you as her son; but that, when your
identity is once established in that way, she will receive you into