ged to me over
and over again that she had intended to change the children, and had
dressed them both alike; and when I asked her what good had come out of
her scheming, she said that in the first place we had got rid of the
bother of bringing up the boy, and that if I were not a fool we might
make a good thing out of it yet. But she was vexed and angry with
herself for not having seen this little mark, and for having herself
lost all clue as to which was her child. I told her that as she had
intended to change them she could have cared nothing for her own boy,
and that her only object could have been to make money.

"She did not deny it, but simply jeered at me for being content to
remain all my life a non-commissioned officer when there might be a
fortune made out of this. I do not say that if she had been able to tell
one child from the other she would have told me, for if she had I should
certainly have gone to Captain Clinton and told him; but she did not
know. A woman can act well, but she cannot make herself as white as a
sheet and put such a wild look into her eyes as she had when I found her
turning those children over and over, and trying to make out which was
which. I could take the Bible in my hand and swear in court that Jane
Humphreys knew no more than I did which was her child, that she had
never noticed the mark until after the change was made, and that to this
day she does not know.

"One of the points we quarrelled on was that I made her start for the
captain's quarters in such a hurry. She afterwards said that when it
first came across her that she did not know which child was which, her
blood seemed to go up into her head, and she lost her power of judgment
altogether. She said over and over again that if I hadn't hurried her
so, and had let matters be for a day or two, so that she could have
slept on it and had looked at them quiet, she would have known which was
her child. So that is how it is, lad. You may be Jane Humphreys' child
and mine, or you may be Captain Clinton's, but no living soul can decide
which. As to Jane Humphreys, she is a liar and a thorough bad un, and if
it is only on her word that you have run away you have made a bad
mistake of it. Still it is not too late to put that right. My word is as
good as hers; and as she swore before she did not know which was which,
her swearing now that she does, after all these years, will go for
nothing at all."

Edgar was silent for some time