Before I could speak, a friend's voice at the door interrupted
us. The Doctor, returning to me as he had promised, answered
the Minister's question in these words:

"I must have passed the person you mean, sir, as I was coming
in here; and I heard her say: 'You will find the tigress-cub
take after its mother.' If she had known how to put her meaning
into good English, Miss Chance--that is the name you mentioned,
I think--might have told you that the vices of the parents are
inherited by the children. And the one particular parent she had
in her mind," the Doctor continued, gently patting the child's
cheek, "was no doubt the mother of this unfortunate little
creature--who may, or may not, live to show you that she comes
of a bad stock and inherits a wicked nature."

I was on the point of protesting against my friend's
interpretation, when the Minister stopped me.

"Let me thank you, sir, for your explanation," he said to
the Doctor. "As soon as my mind is free, I will reflect on what
you have said. Forgive me, Mr. Governor," he went on, "if I leave
you, now that I have placed the Prisoner's confession in your
hands. It has been an effort to me to say the little I have said,
since I first entered this room. I can think of nothing but that
unhappy criminal, and the death that she must die to-morrow."

"Does she wish you to be present?" I asked.

"She positively forbids it. 'After what you have done for me,'
she said, 'the least I can do in return is to prevent your being