Doris stretched her arms as if pushing aside every obstacle.
"I do," she said. "I am not a daring woman: I am a weak and fearful one—this, though, I dare!"
"But the father——" Angela whispered.
"The—father——" Doris's eyes flamed.
"But he may, as you say, claim the child." Angela hastened breathlessly as one running.
"How could he, if I did not know which child was his?"
The blinding light began to point the way clearer, now, to the older woman.
"It's—unheard of," she murmured, "and yet——"
"I will write to Thornton, offer to take his child," Doris was pleading, rather than explaining. "I think at the first he will agree to the proposal—what else can he do? The shock—remember, he does not even know that a child is expected! Dare we refuse Meredith's child this only and desperate chance—knowing what we do?"
Angela made no reply. She was letting go one after another of her rigid beliefs. Again Doris spoke, again she pleaded: