Rawlins who was at the hospital when I was
there, and that it was Mrs. Randall who got my baby."

"Because you didn't ask me. You never mentioned that affair, so I
thought you had forgotten, or didn't want to speak about it."

"No, Hettie, I had not forgotten it. But I did not know it was you who
exchanged the babies. I saw you only a few times at the hospital, and
when I again met you years later as Mrs. Grimsby I did not recognise
you. Oh, what would I not give to undo that terrible deed I committed!
I must have been crazy to sell my baby for money."

"And I a fool for what I did. But I must have been entirely out of my
mind when I told Gabe anything. I kept the secret for years, and then
in one unguarded moment I let a few words slip from my lips. Gabe
threatened my life, and gave me no peace until I told him all. I could
not help it. If you only knew what a life I lead you would understand.
Can you ever forgive me?"

"There is really nothing to forgive, Hettie," was Mrs. Hampton's sad
reply. "I am the one who needs forgiveness, not only from you but from
the child I so heartlessly sold. Did you ever see her?"

"No, not to my knowledge. But I understand her life was not happy, and
so the poor thing drowned herself to escape from her misery. You have
heard the news, I suppose?"

"Yes. There has been a great deal about it in the papers. Her body
has not been found, has it?"

Mrs. Hampton tried to speak as unconcernedly as possible, and if Mrs.
Grimsby had not been so much taken up with her own troubles she might
have wondered why any mother could speak so coolly about the death of
her own daughter, even though she had not seen her since she was a baby.

"No, her body has not been found yet, though men are searching for it
all the time, so I understand," the visitor explained.

"Do her parents, I mean the Randalls, feel very badly about her death,
Hettie?"

"In a way I suppose they do. But I have heard that they are more angry
than anything else. Their minds were so set upon the girl marrying
that Lord's son that they are greatly disappointed. I admire her for
what she did. I wish I had done the same myself before I married Gabe
Grimsby. My life has been a living death ever since. But, there, I
have talked too long. I must hurry away home. I hope Gabe will never
know that I have been here. He must think that he lost that money."

"You are not going to walk home, Hettie," Mrs. Hampton