you would know what has changed this beautiful woman into a shadow in
five days."

And I myself did not know her mind. I could neither foresee what she
contemplated nor what the effect of seeing the child again would have
upon her. I only knew that she must never for a moment be out of sight
of some one who loved her. I myself never left the hall upon which her
room opened, a precaution for which I felt grateful when, late in the
evening, she opened the door and, seeing me, stepped out fully dressed
for the street.

"Come and tell Sister Angelina that I may be trusted with you," she
said. Sister Angelina was the nurse.

Of course I did as she bade me, and after some few more difficulties I
succeeded in getting her into a carriage without attracting any special
attention. Once there she breathed more easily, and so did I.

"Now take me to _her_," she said. Whether she meant Mrs. Carew or
Gwendolen, I never knew.

I now saw that the hour had come for telling her that she no longer need
have any fear of Doctor Pool. Whatever she contemplated must be done
with a true knowledge of where she stood and to just what extent her
secret remained endangered. I do not know if she felt grateful. I almost
think that for the first few minutes she felt rather frightened than
relieved to find herself free to act as her wishes and the preservation
of her place in her husband's heart and the world's regard impelled her.
For she never for a moment seemed to doubt, that now the doctor was gone
I would yield to her misery and prove myself the friend she had begged
me to be from the first. She turned herself toward me and sought to read
my face, but it was rather to find out what I expected of her than what
she had yet to fear from me. I noted this and muttered some words of
confidence; but her mood had already changed, and they fell on deaf
ears.

I was not present at the meeting of the two women. That is, I remained
in what they would call a private parlor, while Mrs. Ocumpaugh passed
into the inner room, where she knew she would find Mrs. Carew and the
child. Nor did I hear much. Some words came through the partition. I
caught most of Mrs. Carew's explanation of how she came to give up her
new-born child. She was an actress at the time with a London success to
her credit, but with no hold as yet in this country. She was booked for
a tour the coming season; the husband who might have seen to the child
was dead; she had no friends, n