clerk, and that rascal, Brough, had brought you to ruin.
'Poor thing!' said my Lady: Mrs. Titmarsh did not speak, but still kept
looking at the baby; and the great big grenadier of a Mrs. Horner looked
angrily at her.

"'Poor thing!' says my Lady, taking Mrs. T.'s hand very kind, 'she seems
very young. How old are you, my dear?'

"'Five weeks and two days!' says your wife, sobbing.

"Mrs. Horner burst into a laugh; but there was a tear in my Lady's eyes,
for she knew what the poor thing was a-thinking of.

"'Silence, woman!' says she angrily to the great grenadier woman; and at
this moment the child in the next room began crying.

"As soon as your wife heard the noise, she sprung from her chair and made
a stop forward, and put both her hands to her breast and said, 'The
child--the child--give it me!' and then began to cry again.

"My Lady looked at her for a moment, and then ran into the next room and
brought her the baby; and the baby clung to her as if he knew her: and a
pretty sight it was to see that dear woman with the child at her bosom.

"When my Lady saw it, what do you think she did? After looking on it for
a bit, she put her arms round your wife's neck and kissed her.

"'My dear,' said she, 'I am sure you are as good as you are pretty, and
you shall keep the child: and I thank God for sending you to me!'

"These were her very words; and Dr. Bland, who was standing by, says,
'It's a second judgment of Solomon!'

"'I suppose, my Lady, you don't want _me_?' says the big woman, with
another curtsey.

"'Not in the least!' answers my Lady, haughtily, and the grenadier left
the room: and then I told all your story at full length, and Mrs.
Blenkinsop kept me to tea, and I saw the beautiful room that Mrs.
Titmarsh is to have next to Lady Tiptoff's; and when my Lord came home,
what does he do but insist upon coming back with me here in a hackney-
coach, as he said he must apologise to you for keeping your wife away."

I could not help, in my own mind, connecting this strange event which, in
the midst of our sorrow, came to console us, and in our poverty to give
us bread,--I could not help connecting it with the _diamond pin_, and
fancying that the disappearance of that ornament had somehow brought a
different and a better sort of luck into my family. And though some
gents who read this, may call me a poor-spirited fellow for allowing my
wife to go out to service, who was bred a lady and ought to have ser