with his prospects--with his
promotion. That is sure to come for him, and to come quickly, he has
such talents. He is devoted to his profession; it would ruin him to
leave it."

"My dear young woman, you are a wonderful creature!" Mrs. Portico
exclaimed, looking at her companion as if she had been in a glass case.

"So poor Raymond says," Georgina answered, smiling more than ever.

"Certainly, I should have been very sorry to marry a navy man; but if I
had married him, I should stick to him, in the face of all the scoldings
in the universe!"

"I don't know what your parents may have been; I know what mine are,",
Georgina replied, with some dignity. "When he's a captain, we shall come
out of hiding."

"And what shall you do meanwhile? What will you do with your children?
Where will you hide them? What will you do with this one?"

Georgina rested her eyes on her lap for a minute; then, raising them,
she met those of Mrs. Portico. "Somewhere in Europe," she said, in her
sweet tone.

"Georgina Gressie, you 're a monster!" the elder lady cried.

"I know what I am about, and you will help me," the girl went on.

"I will go and tell your father and mother the whole story,--that's what
I will do!"

"I am not in the least afraid of that, not in the least. You will help
me,--I assure you that you will."

"Do you mean I will support the child?"

Georgina broke into a laugh. "I do believe you would, if I were to ask
you! But I won't go so far as that; I have something of my own. All I
want you to do is to be with me."

"At Genoa,--yes, you have got it all fixed! You say Mr. Benyon is so
fond of the place. That's all very well; but how will he like his infant
being deposited there?"

"He won't like it at all. You see I tell you the whole truth," said
Georgina, gently.

"Much obliged; it's a pity you keep it all for me! It is in his power,
then, to make you behave properly. _He_ can publish your marriage if you
won't; and if he does you will have to acknowledge your child."

"Publish, Mrs. Portico? How little you know my Raymond! He will never
break a promise; he will go through fire first."

"And what have you got him to promise?'

"Never to insist on a disclosure against my will; never to claim me
openly as his wife till I think it is time; never to let any one know
what has passed between us if I choose to keep it still a secret--to
keep it for years--to keep it forever. Never to do anything in the
matter h