over which I had no control."

"And you never saw it after it was taken away?"

"Never."

"And do not really know whether it be dead or living?"

"Oh, it's dead, of course, my child. There is no doubt of that," said
the doctor, with sudden earnestness of manner.

"Have you any evidence of the fact?"

"My dear, dear child," answered the doctor, with much feeling, "it is
all wrong. Why go back over this unhappy ground? why torture yourself
for nothing? Your baby died long ago, and is in heaven."

"Would God I could believe it!" she exclaimed, in strong agitation. "If
it were so, why is not the evidence set before me? I question my mother;
I ask for the nurse who was with me when my baby was born, and for the
nurse to whom it was given afterward, and am told that they are dead or
out of the country. I ask for my baby's grave, but it cannot be found.
I have searched for it where my mother told me it was, but the grave
is not there. Why all this hiding and mystery? Doctor, you said that my
baby was in heaven, and I answered, 'Would God it were so!' for I saw a
baby in hell not long ago!"

The doctor was scared. He feared that Edith was losing her mind, she
looked and spoke so wildly.

"A puny, half-starved, half-frozen little thing, in the arms of a
drunken beggar," she added. "And, doctor, an awful thought has haunted
me ever since."

"Hush, hush!" said the doctor, who saw what was in her mind. "You must
not indulge such morbid fancies."

"It is that I may not indulge them that I have come to you. I want
certainty, Dr. Radcliffe. Somebody knows all about my baby. Who was my
nurse?"

"I never saw her before the night of your baby's birth, and have never
seen her since. Your mother procured her."

"Did you hear her name?"

"No."

"And so you cannot help me at all?" said Edith, in a disappointed voice.

"I cannot, my poor child," answered the doctor.

All the flush and excitement died out of Edith's face. When she arose to
go, she was pale and haggard, like one exhausted by pain, and her steps
uneven, like the steps of an invalid walking for the first time. Dr.
Radcliffe went with her in silence to the door.

"Oh, doctor," said Edith, in a choking voice, as she lingered a moment
on the steps, "can't you bring out of this frightful mystery something
for my heart to rest upon? I want the truth. Oh, doctor, in pity help me
to find the truth!"

"I am powerless to help you," the doctor replied. "Your only h