a
large town not far from her birthplace.

Even those commonplace words were made interesting by her delicious
voice. But however sensitive to sweet sounds a man may be, there are
limits to his capacity for deceiving himself--especially when he happens
to be enlightened by experience of humanity within the walls of a
prison. I had, it may be remembered, already doubted the lady's good
temper, judging from her husband's over-wrought description of her
virtues. Her eyes looked at me furtively; and her manner, gracefully
self-possessed as it was, suggested that she had something of a
delicate, or disagreeable, nature to say to me, and that she was at a
loss how to approach the subject so as to produce the right impression
on my mind at the outset. There was a momentary silence between us. For
the sake of saying something, I asked how she and the Minister liked
their new place of residence.

"Our new place of residence," she answered, "has been made interesting
by a very unexpected event--an event (how shall I describe it?) which
has increased our happiness and enlarged our family circle."

There she stopped: expecting me, as I fancied, to guess what she
meant. A woman, and that woman a mother, might have fulfilled her
anticipations. A man, and that man not listening attentively, was simply
puzzled.

"Pray excuse my stupidity," I said; "I don't quite understand you."

The lady's temper looked at me out of the lady's shifting eyes, and
hid itself again in a moment. She set herself right in my estimation
by taking the whole blame of our little misunderstanding on her own
innocent shoulders.

"I ought to have spoken more plainly," she said. "Let me try what I can
do now. After many years of disappointment in my married life, it has
pleased Providence to bestow on me the happiness--the inexpressible
happiness--of being a mother. My baby is a sweet little girl; and my one
regret is that I cannot nurse her myself."

My languid interest in the Minister's wife was not stimulated by the
announcement of this domestic event.

I felt no wish to see the "sweet little girl"; I was not even reminded
of another example of long-deferred maternity, which had occurred
within the limits of my own family circle. All my sympathies attached
themselves to the sad little figure of the adopted child. I remembered
the poor baby on my knee, enchanted by the ticking of my watch--I
thought of her, peacefully and prettily asleep under the horri