a surety for her
life, and a safeguard for his conscience.

CHAPTER XXVII.

The child of William and Agnes was secreted, by Rebecca, in a distant
chamber belonging to the dreary parsonage, near to which scarcely any
part of the family ever went. There she administered to all its wants,
visited it every hour of the day, and at intervals during the night
viewed almost with the joy of a mother its health, its promised life--and
in a short the found she loved her little gift better than anything on
earth, except the giver.

Henry called the next morning, and the next, and many succeeding times,
in hopes of an opportunity to speak alone with Rebecca, to inquire
concerning her charge, and consult when and how he could privately
relieve her from her trust; as he now meant to procure a nurse for wages.
In vain he called or lurked around the house; for near five weeks all the
conversation he could obtain with her was in the company of her sisters,
who, beginning to observe his preference, his marked attention to her,
and the languid, half-smothered transport with which she received it,
indulged their envy and resentment at the contempt shown to their charms,
by watching her steps when he was away, and her every look and whisper
while he was present.

For five weeks, then, he was continually thwarted in his expectation of
meeting her alone: and at the end of that period the whole design he had
to accomplish by such a meeting was rendered abortive.

Though Rebecca had with strictest caution locked the door of the room in
which the child was hid, and covered each crevice, and every aperture
through which sound might more easily proceed; though she had surrounded
the infant's head with pillows, to obstruct all noise from his crying;
yet one unlucky night, the strength of his voice increasing with his age,
he was heard by the maid, who slept the nearest to that part of the
house.

Not meaning to injure her young mistress, the servant next morning simply
related to the family what sounds had struck her ear during the night,
and whence they proceeded. At first she was ridiculed "for supposing
herself awake when in reality she must be dreaming." But steadfastly
persisting in what she had said, and Rebecca's blushes, confusion, and
eagerness to prove the maid mistaken, giving suspicion to her charitable
sisters, they watched her the very next time she went by stealth to
supply the office of a mother; and breaking abrupt