sent only a short
time before. I also made a copy of it, which I forwarded to my poor
husband on board the _Royal George_.'

"`Did it ever occur to you, ma'am,' I asked, `that your sister may have
gone to see her brother on board the _Royal George_, and taken the
little boy with her?'

"`Yes, indeed,' she answered, `I thought that possible; but when I heard
that all the women and children on board had perished, I knew that if
such were the case, both Emily and my child must have been lost also.'

"`Did you ever hear, ma'am, that a little boy was saved from the wreck?'
I said.

"`No,' she answered. `Mr Biddulph Stafford, who kindly came here at
the time, and told me all about it, did not mention that any child was
saved; but oh! say, was such really the case? Could my boy have been on
board and escaped the fate which overtook his father?'

"I thought it time to describe to the poor mother how a young lady came
with a little boy, exactly like the picture she had just shown me, to
your cottage, and how you had saved the same child after the ship had
gone down, and that the same boy was now an officer in the navy.

"`Oh, merciful Providence, he must be my own boy! I should know him
even now, he cannot be so changed,' she exclaimed.

"I told her, though I did not wish to raise her hopes to disappoint
them, that I felt sure she was right. But then I suggested that though
she might be confident that Harry Saint George was her son, it might be
very difficult to prove it so as to enable him to obtain his rights.

"`If we could prove that Miss Stafford went to Ryde with her nephew, it
would greatly assist the case,' I observed.

"`I will look over all her letters to me, and see if she ever mentioned
that she thought of so doing,' she said. `I have some also which my
husband wrote to her during their mother's illness, and he may possibly
have expressed a wish to see her and our boy. But surely, even should I
not discover anything of the sort, Sir Mostyn Stafford will be convinced
that my son is his nephew, and would not refuse to acknowledge him.'

"About that, I said, I could not be sure; but I advised her not on any
account to let Mr Biddulph Stafford know that she had gained tidings of
her son, lest he might influence Sir Mostyn. I told her that I was sure
my brother-in-law, Mr Pengelley, would, with the evidence she was able
to bring forward, undertake her case; and I offered, should Harry Saint
George be i