"Have you seen him?"
"No."
She felt greatly relieved. He continued to look at the fire, but gave no signs of wishing to prolong the conversation. She drew a stool by his side, and sat down upon it; and in silence they both contemplated the evanescent shapes in the burning coals.
Having sat thus for some time, Blanche rose and went into the next room, and presently returned with her baby in her arms, asleep, which she gently laid upon Cecil's lap.
He turned a dull, sad eye upon her, inquiringly, and then looked down upon the sleeping infant on his knee.
"Unhappy child!" he said, and the tears rolled down his cheeks, as he gazed upon the sleeping babe, unconscious of the sorrow it awakened in its father's heart, and the remorse for infatuated villany, the consequences of which must eventually fall upon its head.
"Take her away," he said, "take her away. Why do you bring her to me?"
"To make you happy."
"To make me more miserable than I was before—to reproach me—me, her father, that she has not a better home, warmer clothing! Take her away."
Blanche, sobbing, took the child and laid it again in its cradle.