"I am in sober earnest. I will do what I say, but only on one condition."
"And that is?"
"That you give up the child, absolutely, and forever."
"What! part with the only thing left me to love and cherish—"
"One moment, madam," interposed the lawyers "before your emotion overpowers you. We happen to be able to judge of the extent of your affection for your only son."
"How so?"
"We know you care so little for him that for month, you never see the child. It was left in England when you went to the Crimea—"
"With my husband. Besides, I could not have made a nursery of Lord Lydstone's yacht."
"And since you settled in London you have sent it to a nurse in the country."
"It was better for the child."