Will you leave the boy with me?'

"I was just on the point of saying it was none of mine, nor of his
neither; but mother saw her own interest in this, as she did in most
things, and so says she----

"'It's cruel to part Elizabeth from her child, very cruel. Will you,
that has treated her so bad, be good to the boy? Do you mean to
acknowledge him?'

"Harry spoke slow again: 'I don't know if I will be good to him, but I
will try. I will put him in as good hands as I can, educate him, and
acknowledge him, if he deserves it; and I fear if you bring him up he
is not likely to do so.'

"'It is for the child's own good, Bessie,' said mother, eagerly. 'You
must sacrifice your own feeling, and leave him with his father, if he
promises so fair. How are we like to get him educated where we are
going? It is very hard on you, Bessie,' said mother, coaxingly.

"I stood sulky, not knowing what to do or what to say.

"'And Mr. Hogarth will no doubt consider the hardship of your case, and
make it up in some other way to you,' mother went on to say.

"Henry looked up at mother very sharp, and then he looked at me. Though
he did not believe in my tears, he did not like to see them, for they
reminded him of how I had served him before.

"'He is quite innocent now, poor boy, quite innocent,' said Henry; 'we
must keep him so if we can,' and he offered as much to me for my life
as we had expected him to give for me and the child too; and it was so
tempting that we closed with it at once, for it cost me nothing to part
with a baby as was not my own. I had had a mind to tell him, but then I
knew how enraged he would have been at my trying it on with him.
Another cheat would have driven him wild, so I bade him good-bye and
the child too.

"He took us on board and we sailed that night, and I never saw him or
the child again. He sent me money regular till I asked for the fifteen
hundred pounds and signed a quittance for the annuity like a fool, as I
told you."

Chapter X.

Mrs. Peck's Disappointment

Brandon had listened to this strange story of Mrs. Peck's without
interrupting her. After she had concluded, he thought for a minute and
then said----

"Did you ever hear if the mother of the child you stole missed it?"

"How should I hear? We sailed that day for Sydney, and we never heard
nothing about it."

"What was her name?" asked Brandon.

"I don't know at all for certain; there was so many people in the
house, tha