the same time I was afraid, after what he had but too plainly
suffered, to ask him to enter into details.

"Only one word," I said. "Are your anxieties at rest?"

"God's mercy has helped me," he answered. "I have not spoken in
vain. She believes; she repents; she has confessed the crime."

After handing the written and signed confession to me, he
approached the venomous creature, still lingering in the room
to hear what passed between us. Before I could stop him, he spoke
to her, under a natural impression that he was addressing
the Prisoner's servant.

"I am afraid you will be disappointed," he said, "when I tell you
that your services will no longer be required. I have reasons for
placing the child under the care of a nurse of my own choosing."

She listened with an evil smile.

"I know who furnished you with your reasons," she answered.
"Apologies are quite needless, so far as I am concerned. If you
had proposed to me to look after the new member of your family
there, I should have felt it my duty to myself to have refused.
I am not a nurse--I am an independent single lady. I see by your
dress that you are a clergyman. Allow me to present myself as
a mark of respect to your cloth. I am Miss Elizabeth Chance. May
I ask the favor of your name?"

Too weary and too preoccupied to notice the insolence of