Yonkers.' He
muttered something about not peachin' on a poor man who was really doin'
an unfortunate a kindness, and then slunk hurriedly back and was gone,
wagon, wife and all, by the time I had whipped up my tired old nag and
turned about toward Yonkers. But I had the child safe and sound in my
arms, and my fears of its fate were relieved. It was not well, but I
anticipated nothing serious. When it moaned I pressed it a little closer
to my breast and that was all. In three-quarters of an hour we were in
Yonkers. In fifteen minutes I had it on this bed, and had begun to
unroll the shawl in which it was closely wrapped. Did you ever see the
child about whom there has been all this coil?"

"Yes, about three years ago."

"Three years! I have seen her within a fortnight; yet I could carry that
young one in my arms for a whole hour without the least suspicion that I
was making a fool of myself."

Quickly slipping aside, he allowed me to approach the bed and take my
first look at the sleeping child's face. It was a sweet one but I did
not need the hint he had given me to find the features strange, and
lacking every characteristic of those of Gwendolen Ocumpaugh. Yet as the
cutting off of the hair will often change the whole aspect of the
face--and this child's hair was short--I was stooping in great
excitement to notice more particularly the contour of cheek and chin
which had given individuality to the little heiress, when the doctor
touched me on the arm and drew my attention to a pair of little trousers
and a shirt which were hanging on the door behind me.

"Those are the clothes I came upon under that great shawl. The child I
have been following and whom I have brought into my house under the
impression it was Gwendolen Ocumpaugh is not even a girl."

VII

"FIND THE CHILD!"

I could well understand the wrath to which this man had given way, by
the feeling which now took hold of my own breast.

"A boy!" I exclaimed.

"A boy."

Still incredulous, I leaned over the child and lifted into the full
light of the lamp one of the little hands I saw lying outside of the
coverlet. There was no mistaking it for a girl's hand, let alone a
little lady's.

"So we are both fools!" I vociferated in my unbounded indignation,
careful however to lay the small hand gently back on the panting breast.
And turning away both from the doctor and his small patient, I strolled
back into the office.

The bubble whose gay col