ow I would shy this stick of wood at your head only that I
don't want Reuben Gray to have the mortification of seeing his wife took
up for assault! But I hate you, Herman Brudenell! And I despise you!
There! take yourself out of my sight!"

Mr. Brudenell stamped impatiently and said:

"Hannah, you speak angrily, and therefore, foolishly. What good could
accrue to me, or to him, by my claiming Ishmael as my son, unless I
could prove a marriage with his mother? It would only unearth the old,
cruel, unmerited scandal now forgotten! No, Hannah; to you only, who are
the sole living depository of the secret, will I solace myself by
speaking of him as my son! You reproach me with having left him to
perish. I did not so. I left in your hands a check for several--I forget
how many--thousand dollars to be used for his benefit. And I always
hoped that he was well provided for until yesterday, when Judge Merlin,
little thinking the interest I had in the story, gave me a sketch of
Ishmael's early sufferings and struggles. And now I ask you what became
of that check?"

"That check? What check? What in the world do you mean?"

"The check for several thousand dollars which I gave you on the day of
my departure, to be used for Ishmael's benefit."

"Well, Herman Brudenell! I always thought, with all your faults, you
were still a man of truth; but after this--"

And Hannah finished by lifting her hands and eyes in horror.

"Hannah, you do severely try my temper, but in memory of all your
kindness to my son--"

"Oh! I wasn't kind to him! I was as bad to him as you, and all the rest!
I wished him dead, and neglected him!"

"You did!"

"Of course! Could anybody expect me to care more for him than his own
father did? Yes, I wished him dead, and neglected him, because I
thought he had no right to be in the world, and would be better out of
it! So did everyone else. But he sucked his little, skinny thumb, and
looked alive at us with his big, bright eyes, and lived in defiance of
everybody. And only see what he has lived to be! But it is the good
Lord's doings and not mine, and not yours, Herman Brudenell, so don't
thank me anymore for kindness that I never showed to Ishmael, and don't
tell any more bragging lies about the checks for thousands of dollars
that you never left him!"

Again Herman Brudenell stamped impatiently, frowned, bit his lips, and
said:

"You shall not goad me to anger with the two-edged sword of your tongue,