"Yes," she said.

"Who is not your child."

"But _whom_ I love as such; whom I have always taught to look upon
me as a mother."

"I presume so. It is of her that I wish to speak to you."

"Do you know anything of her parentage?" inquired Mrs. Crump,
eagerly.

"I was her nurse," said the other, quietly.

Mrs. Crump examined, anxiously, the hard features of the woman. It
was a relief at least to know, though she could hardly have
believed, that there was no tie of blood between her and Ida.

"Who were her parents?"

"I am not permitted to tell," was the reply.

Mrs. Crump looked disappointed.

"Surely," she said, with a sudden sinking of heart, "you have not
come to take her away?"

"This letter will explain my object in visiting you," said the
woman, drawing a sealed envelope from a bag which she carried on her
arm.