and by this word she shall be my child.'

The mother consented at last; left her baby with the doctor, married,
and went to America. All this was consummated before Roger Scatcherd
was liberated from jail. Some conditions the doctor made. The first
was, that Scatcherd should not know his sister's child was thus
disposed of. Dr Thorne, in undertaking to bring up the baby, did not
choose to encounter any girl's relations on the other side. Relations
she would undoubtedly have had none had she been left to live or die as
a workhouse bastard; but should the doctor succeed in life, should he
ultimately be able to make this girl the darling of his own house, and
then the darling of some other house, should she live and win the heart
of some man whom the doctor might delight to call his friend and
nephew; then relations might spring up whose ties would not
advantageous.

No man plumed himself on good blood more than Dr Thorne; no man had
greater pride in his genealogical tree, and his hundred and thirty
clearly descendant from MacAdam; no man had a stronger theory as to the
advantage held by men who have grandfathers over those who have none,
or have none worth talking about. Let it not be thought that our
doctor was a perfect character. No, indeed; most far from perfect. He
had within him an inner, stubborn, self-admiring pride, which made him
believe himself to be better and higher than those around him, and this
from some unknown cause which he could hardly explain to himself. He
had a pride in being a poor man of a high family; he had a pride in
repudiating the very family of which he was proud; and he had a special
pride in keeping his pride silently to himself. His father had been a
Thorne, his mother a Thorold. There was no better blood to be had in
England. It was in the possession of such properties as these that he