he trusted her with his instructions, that she knew no
more than the veriest stranger of any peculiarity in one or the other of
the child's feet.

Interpreting Mrs. Farnaby's last reply to him as an intimation that
their interview was at an end, Amelius took up his hat to go.

"I hope with all my heart," he said, "that what has begun so well will
end well. If there is any service that I can do for you--"

She drew nearer to him, and put her hand gently on his shoulder. "Don't
think that I distrust you," she said very earnestly; "I am unwilling to
shock you--that is all. Even this great joy has a dark side to it; my
miserable married life casts its shadow on everything that happens to
me. Keep secret from everybody the little that I have told you--you will
ruin me if you say one word of it to any living creature. I ought not to
have opened my heart to you--but how could I help it, when the happiness
that is coming to me has come through you? When you say good-bye to me
to-day, Amelius, you say good-bye to me for the last time in this house.
I am going away. Don't ask me why--that is one more among the things
which I daren't tell you! You shall hear from me, or see me--I promise
that. Give me some safe address to write to; some place where there are
no inquisitive women who may open my letter in your absence."

She handed him her pocket-book. Amelius wrote down in it the address of
his club.

She took his hand. "Think of me kindly," she said. "And, once more,
don't be afraid of my being deceived. There is a hard part of me still
left which keeps me on my guard. The old woman tried, this morning, to
make me talk to her about that little fault we know of in my child's
foot. But I thought to myself, 'If you had taken a proper interest in my
poor baby while she was with you, you must sooner or later have found it
out.' Not a word passed my lips. No, no, don't be anxious when you think
of me. I am as sharp as they are; I mean to find out how the man who
wrote to me discovered what he knows; he shall satisfy me, I promise
you, when I see him or hear from him next. All this is between ourselves
strictly, sacredly between ourselves. Say nothing--I know I can trust
you. Good-bye, and forgive me for having been so often in your way with
Regina. I shall never be in your way again. Marry her, if you think
she is good enough for you; I have no more interest now in your being
a roving bachelor, meeting with girls here, there, and e