‘Oh, Liz! how can you ask? Why, my own baby, of course! The one you have in charge.’
‘I thought you denied this morning that you were a mother, Quita?’
‘I was obliged to do so. What could I say, with mamma or papa liable to come in at any moment? You might as well have asked me to cut my own throat. But here, alone with you, I can say anything! I confess it is mine, Lizzie, and that I knew all about it from the beginning. I told your dear father everything; and he promised that he and you should stand my friends, and prevent my secret from being published to the world.’
‘I have heard all this before,’ said Lizzie, still engaged upon her sewing.
‘And now you will let me see her, won’t you? You will let me hold her in my arms for a little while? I must not stay long, for fear that meddlesome old Jessica should come after me. You will take me to my baby at once, Lizzie?’
‘No,’ replied the Doctor’s daughter firmly.
‘What do you mean? Isn’t she here?’
‘Yes; but you will not see her.’
‘How dare you keep me from her? She is mine, not yours.’
‘You did not say so this morning.’