"'If I can; what is it that you want me to do, madam?'
"'First of all, keep a secret, and next, protect or help protect, an innocent child.'
"'Suppose I help the child, and you don't tell me the secret?'
"'No, it concerns the child, sir; she is my child; I want her to grow up without knowing what her mother has done, or how she has lived and suffered; you wouldn't tell her that, would you?'
"'No; certainly not!'
"'Nor anyone else?'
"'No.'
"'You would judge her alone, forgetting her mother?'
"'Yes.'
"'Then I will tell you the story.'