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The Money Master, Volume 5. by Gilbert Parker
page 35 of 51 (68%)
and Monsieur Barbille will decide what's best for the child without
difficulty."

The door opened quickly and shut again, and Jean Jacques was alone with
the woman and the child. "What's best for the child!"

That was what the Young Doctor had said. Norah stopped rocking the
cradle and stared at the closed door. What had this man before her, this
tramp habitant of whom she had heard, of course, to do with little Zoe in
the cradle--her little Zoe who had come just when she was most needed;
who had brought her man and herself close together again after an
estrangement which neither had seemed able to prevent.

"What's best for the child!" How did the child in the cradle
concern this man? Then suddenly his name almost shrieked in her brain.
Barbille--that was the name on the letter found on the body of the woman
who died and left Zoe behind--M. Jean Jacques Barbille.

Yes, that was the name. What was going to happen? Did the man intend to
try and take Zoe from her?

"What is your name--all of it?" she asked sharply. She had a very fine
set of teeth, as Jean Jacques saw mechanically; and subconsciously he
said to himself that they seemed cruel, they were so white and regular--
and cruel. The cruelty was evident to him as she bit in two the thread
for the waistcoat she was mending, and then plied her needle again. Also
the needle in her fingers might have been intended to sew up his shroud,
so angry did it appear at the moment. But her teeth had something almost
savage about them. If he had seen them when she was smiling, he would
have thought them merely beautiful and rare, atoning for her plain face
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