know how you answered your husband's letter. But I ought perhaps
to see how you have expressed yourself. Have you got a copy?"

"It was too short, Mr. Sarrazin, to make a copy necessary."

"Do you mean you can remember it?"

"I can repeat it word for word. This was my reply: I refuse,
positively, to part with my child."

"No more like that?"

"No more."

Mr. Sarrazin looked at his client with undisguised admiration.
"The only time in all my long experience," he said, "in which I
have found a lady's letter capable of expressing itself strongly
in a few words. What a lawyer you will make, Mrs. Linley, when
the rights of women invade my profession!"

He put his hand into his pocket and produced a letter addressed
to himself.

Watching him anxiously, the ladies saw his bright face become
overclouded with anxiety. "I am the wretched bearer of bad news,"
he resumed, "and if I fidget in my chair, that is the reason for
it. Let us get to the point--and let us get off it again as soon
as possible. Here is a letter, written to me by Mr. Linley's
lawyer. If you will take my advice you will let me say what the
substance of it is, and then put it back in my pocket. I doubt if