ith the single exception that the latter had
married a man she loved, whereas he exacted of Agnes a very different
sacrifice. Owing to the alienation produced by this affair, there was
little communication between the uncle and niece; the latter passing her
time in retirement, and professedly with friends that the former neither
knew nor cared to know. In short, such was the mode of life of the
respective parties, that nothing was easier than for the unhappy young
widow to conceal her state from her uncle. The motive was the fortune of
the expected child; this uncle having it in his power to alienate from
it, by will, if he saw fit, certain family property, that might
otherwise descend to the issue of the two sisters, as his co-heiresses.
What might have happened in the end, or what poor Agnes meditated doing,
can never be known; death closing the secret with his irremovable seal.

Mrs. Dutton was the mother of a girl but three months old, at the time
this little stranger was left on her hands. A few weeks later her own
child died; and having waited several months in vain for tidings from
the Hedworth family, she had the surviving infant christened by the same
name as that borne by her own daughter, and soon came to love it, as
much, perhaps, as if she had borne it. Three years passed in this
manner, when the time drew near for the return of her husband from the
East Indies. To be ready to meet him, she changed her abode to a naval
port, and, in so doing, changed her domestics. This left her
accidentally, but fortunately, as she afterwards thought, completely
mistress of the secret of Mildreth's birth; the one or two others to
whom it was known being in stations to render it improbable they should
ever communicate any thing on the subject, unless it were asked of them.
Her original intention, however, was to communicate the facts, without
reserve, to her husband. But he came back an altered man; brutal in
manners, cold in his affections, and the victim of drunkenness. By this
time, the wife was too much attached to the child to think of exposing
it to the wayward caprices of such a being; and Mildred was educated,
and grew in stature and beauty as the real offspring of her reputed
parents.

All this Mrs. Dutton related clearly and briefly, refraining, of course,
from making any allusion to the conduct of her husband, and referring
all her own benevolence to her attachment to the child. Bluewater had
strength enough to